Poker? What's that?

After the most stressful week of my life in over 2 years, final exams are finally completed. This semester was disappointing academically. I came away with a measly 2.75, which could have easily been higher with an extra couple hours a week dedicated to school work outside of class. My cumulative GPA is now something like a 2.97. The only reason I have any motivation to get good grades is pride. Hopefully pride will be enough incentive to put the effort in next semester to pull back to a 3.0+.

In more positive news, I took the plunge and purchased a Breitling watch. I did a lot of research on it and found a good deal on the exact model I wanted most. A $4K watch generally has no astonishing features that a $250 watch lacks, but I really love the look and reputation of Breitling. I understand that it will do very little to attract women (unfortunately!), but for me it symbolizes a sense of accomplishment. In case you are curious, I got the Avenger Skyland:



Being busy with academics up until recently, I have not had much time to play. However, in the couple of attempts to sit in tables and boot a session, the heads-up action on Full Tilt seems quite dead lately. This is disturbing and I hope things change quick. I have noticed (both first hand and from friends' comments) that you can be sitting at 4 total empty tables at mid-stakes and not have a single person attempt to sit in for over an hour. Alarming, to say the least.

November results, crazy week

In spite of this being my best month to date, it did not go as smoothly as you'd assume. I lost $7K in a single HU match, then went on a mini-downswing the second half of the month. (Yes I realize that it is minuscule enough to not even bother mentioning.) Regardless, I am very proud of how the results turned out. I should be able to crank out this many hands playing HU on most months.

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My past few days have been dramatic. One of my tires randomly blew out on I-95 at 1:30 AM on Friday. My dad came out to the highway (right next to the exit of a rough neighborhood) and helped put a donut on my car since I had no experience doing so. Consequently, I had to get new tires the following day. I found out the hard way that the parts for nicer cars have RIDICULOUSLY inflated prices. Then on Sunday I got in a car accident. The weather was 35 degrees and pouring rain. I was going just 55 MPH in a 65 MPH zone on a major highway. The left lane came to an immediate halt, and my car had too much momentum for me to stop in time. I rear-ended the Ford Focus in front of me, and it caused a domino effect that created a 4 car accident.

The old Notorious B.I.G. adage holds a lot of weight: "More money, more problems". To be specific... the more material possessions you own, the more complex and stressful everyday life becomes. it ties down your feeling of independence, freedom, and forces you to place highly priority on material objects than they deserve. Also, everything loses its luster. Millionaires don't enthusiastically jump out of bed every morning just because they have a Porsche and a 6,000 square foot home. A happy life is fulfilled through being content with what you have, and happiness is derived from making the most of your interpersonal relationships with friends and family. I often desire nice things, and want to be a homeowner soon, but also need to exert self-control on buying unnecessary things.

The world has to learn that the actual pleasure derived from material things is of rather low quality on the whole and less even in quantity than it looks to those who have not tried it.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes

I am extremely occupied with academics for the next week-and-change, so I doubt I will be blogging or playing much poker in the near future. In the meantime, I sincerely hope everyone who reads my blog runs well at both poker and life. :)

-Stephen