Chillin back home

I finished up my last final exam on Thursday, and drove home (4.5 hour drive from Pittsburgh to the Philadelphia area) on Friday. I rarely go on droughts like this, but lately I've simply desired other things. I've been getting good workouts in, watching the NHL playoffs, and playing Playstation 3 on my dad's new HDTV. I've been playing lots of Rock Band. I really enjoy playing drums. CTS wrote in one of his blog entries that he is a beast playing drums in the game, so that is motivating me to at least own the game on Hard difficulty.

I have to make a day trip down to the Washington DC area tomorrow for some business... but once I'm back from that, I will switch back into grindcore mode. Most of my days in May will consist of working out around 11 AM, and then playing online periodically all throughout the afternoon and evening. I'm going to log at least 30K hands. I will be continuing to focus on heads-up, but I plan to phase 6 max back into my arsenal. I want to get the rust off at 6 max before Vegas, since I'll be living with a bunch of 6 max grinders.

My next entry should (hopefully) be the coolest entry I've written thus far. Stay tuned. In the mean time, I hope everyone is doing well in poker lately.

Summer checklist, and Hilldawg

This is just a list I came up with in about 2 minutes, so I'm sure it doesn't include some miscellaneous things. This is basically focused on what I want to accomplish before I go to Las Vegas in 7 weeks:

-lift 3 times a week; do cardio 5-6 times a week
-do significant "spring cleaning" of bedroom at my mom's house
-whiten teeth
-get tan
-make 2+ weekend trips to Atlantic City
-make 1 trip to Pittsburgh in May (when its not 90 degrees out)
-get my two dogs in shape
-cook a new (healthy) meal at least once a week
-minimize porn usage
-go skydiving
-take a yoga class

Political rant: I am an independent voter when it comes to party registration AND ideology. However, I particularly have negative feelings toward Hillary Clinton (in spite of not advocating the other candidates anyway). I believe it has become increasingly obvious that Hillary does not give a damn about the well-being of her party. Barack Obama has had a sizeable lead against her in the popular vote, states won, AND number of delegates for many weeks now. Hillary won my state Pennsylvania by a crushing 10% lead yesterday, and yet she still has very little chance of winning the nomination at this point.

Hillary does not care about doing what is best for her party, or she would have bowed out several weeks ago. She has now created tons of negative attention towards her party's primary, and jeopardized their chances of beating McCain. After closely watching her speeches and her voting history in the Senate, it is very apparent to me that Hillary simply just does whatever it takes to personally win. She does not care about her party winning if it means she can't win. She has launched many negative political ads trying to drag Obama's name through the mud. She also has no real ideological base... her voting history and stance on issues are largely incongruent. The term "slimeball" comes to mind when I think of how to describe Hillary.

I would lay 1.5-to-1 on McCain winning the general election this fall, regardless of who his opponent is. And that is largely due to the disaster Hillary has caused.

Random thoughts during finals week

-I find it strange that even successful online players say things like "I see myself playing professionally for maybe another few years". There is a negative undertone about poker as a profession, even among successful players. I can feel nothing but gratitude about the situation I am in. I do something I enjoy, I work less hours than most "conventional" jobs, I make more money than most jobs, and I'm afforded so many freedoms that poker players take for granted. Yes, there are some downsides, like emotional swings and difficulty in getting loans. However, poker is definitely one of the best professions that I would be able to attain with the resources I have in this lifetime. I love what I do, and more other winning players should also. I guess not everyone is fit to stick around in poker for a long period of time. Just look at sbrugby.

-I buzzed my hair yesterday. It's shorter than I imagined it would turn out, but I don't mind it. My plan for this summer is to keep my hair buzzed, work out, diet, and get as tan as my fair-skinned complexion allows. Sound like anyone you (we) know?

-Home in less than 6 days. Ship it. This is finals week at University of Pittsburgh. I'm fortunate enough to only have two finals, and they don't start until Wednesday.

-Poker has been going decently. It's amazing what basic game selection at HU does. I deny action to probably 30-50% of the people that try to sit with me. The downside of doing so is minimal, as I still manage to log a lot of hands as long as I put the hours in. I see the merits of taking on the challenge of very good players (for your level) occasionally to keep your A-game improving, but doing it as often as many people do at HU is unnecessary.

Apocalypse Bet

I have a pretty funny bet that was just placed with my roommate Zack. We were watching a show on the History channel about how the Aztec calendar states that the world ends in 2012. I think it is completely ridiculous, but my roommate Zack is fascinated by it, so we decided to make a bet on it. I was more reasonable than simply dictating "the world ends" for him to win, but I still believe I have an obvious edge. Regardless, I'm looking forward to how this humorous bet plays out in four years.

Apocalypse Bet
Zack is being laid 10-to-1, his $100 versus my $1,000. ANY of the following events have to occur in the calendar year 2012 in order for Zack to win the bet:

a) At least one billion people decease globally
b) A meteor with a diameter of at least 2 miles hits the Earth (water OR land)
c) Any 3+ of these countries declare war on each other: United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom, France, Germany, India, and Japan.
d) A major solar flare takes place, causing major communications (radio, internet, phones, etc) to cease to function for at least a month on a global level.*

*If this happens, a panel of 5 of our current housemates decide if the event is "significant" enough for Zack to win the bet

Getting unstuck via donkaments

Today was another rollercoaster day. I got stuck $2500 pretty early. I felt pretty tilted, but decided to play 2 tournaments as a last-ditch effort. I ended up final tabling both, and won one of them for just over $7,000. This is my larger donkament score ever. (I don't play a lot of them... maybe 20 total MTTs in the last year.) Being stuck so much earlier today, coupled with the fact that cntgetmedown had a larger score recently, partially killed the aura of winning so much in one sitting.



It is really exciting to get deep in a tournament, but that doesn't change my overall outlook on tournaments. I don't enjoy playing them regularly. The edge one has is diminished, and variance is exponentially larger. I also observe my peers, and realize that tournaments are like crack for many people. So many players go deep in one tournament, and suddenly they're hooked. It rarely ends up being pretty over a longer time span for them. Tournaments are frustrating as hell, and results can be very deceiving.

All that aside, I'm still very happy to have won. I can finally say that I have a positive ROI in Full Tilt MTTs. :P

Summer break is approaching!

Here are some various snippets about my life lately:

-I applied for a somewhat large auto loan today. I have a good credit score, but it is difficult for me to prove my income, and having "professional poker player" as a listed profession doesn't help. If I do get approved (I'll know by tomorrow), then I'll visit the dealership when I'm back home at the end of the month. The Infiniti G35 I want is a pretty big financial burden, but as my friend Luke says - "yolo". You only live once. I love cars, and this is what I want to reward myself with.

-I've started to eat healthier. I wouldn't call it a "diet", but I'm following some general guidelines. I'm avoiding simple carbohydrates, eating more fruit and vegetables, salmon and lean protein that I make myself, etc. I'm basically following this as a guideline for everything I eat. I think that fad diets are incredibly stupid. No one stays on them permanently, so they are strictly for short term result. They also put a toll on your mind and your body, because it's such a sudden and massive shift. I just want to lead an overall healthier life, and feel better day-in and day-out.

-I'm only 2.5 weeks away from summer break, which I'm incredibly excited about. May is the best month of the year for me. My life will consist of playing poker, working out, spending time outside in the beautiful weather, playing PS3, trips down to the Jersey shore, and occasionally hanging out with friends from high school. May just equates to a very relaxing lifestyle during absolutely beautiful weather for me.

-I had the craziest 2 day stretch ever just recently. I won $3600 playing 2/4 and 3/6 NL the first day, and then lost $3700 the next. Luckily I had the awesome day first, otherwise that losing day would have probably driven me insane. Heads-up is a game where I have quite a big edge when I table select, but the swings are still big. Emotional control is always important in poker, but it is magnified when playing HU.

-When it comes to academics, I am the biggest procrastinator in the world. I know a lot of people claim this, but I have stories so sad that I can't even share them with people.

March results

March was a fun month. I ran $5K below expectation in all-in pots, but still had pretty solid results.

My break-even stretch came to an abrupt halt 2 weeks ago, and I pretty much coasted the second half of March. The only bump came yesterday, when I lost 4 buy-ins at 3/6 NL to an okay French player. I played him before and thought he was fishy, but he's not bad enough for me to waste my time chasing anymore. Anyway, here ya go:



I've started testing the water with 3/6 NL heads-up. Even though I got pulverized yesterday, it has gone well overall. I'm going to be pretty strict about table selecting 3/6 NL for now. I always talked the past few months about wanting to feel comfortable playing 2/4 to 5/10 NL based on where the good games are, so I'm finally following through with that. There is some serious money to be made being a really good HU player at this range of stakes.