Former cheesesteak addict

I hired a personal trainer today at my gym in Pittsburgh. Ive signed up for 6 sessions. While I know a lot of the basic exercises for each major muscle group, I feel that a personal trainer will help me get down excellent form, as well as set an exact regiment. Also, I know that he works at my gym 7 days a week, so he will always be there to peer pressure me (and for me to ask questions to) long after our sessions are up. +EV for sure.

My diet is 2500-3000 calories/day, ~300g carbs, 60g fat, and 200g protein. I'm closely monitoring everything I eat for a week or so in order to give myself a better perspective on what I need to be eating in order to keep up with those guidelines. This may not sound too difficult, but when you re strictly eating quality calories, it isn't easy and can be quite time-consuming. I actually find the whole nutrition aspect of fitness to be extremely interesting.

I promise not to turn this blog into a clone of Raptor's blog, but here's a log of what I ate today:

8:30 AM = 1.25 cup Kashi cereal, 1.25 cup skim milk; 1 hard-boiled egg, 0.5 cup blueberries
11:00 AM (pre-WO) = 1 container yogurt, 0.25 cup unsalted peanuts
12:30 PM (post-WO) = 1 scoop whey protein, 1 cup skim milk, 0.5 cup orange juice, 1 cup berries
2:00 PM = 1 can tuna, 2 slices whole wheat bread
6:30 PM = 1 cup turkey chili; 1 scoop whey protein, 1 cup skim milk
9:30 PM = Stir fry (6 oz chicken breast, 1 cup broccoli, 0.5 cup whole-grain rice, 1 tbsp olive oil, red onion)

PuddlePirate and I are going to make a diet+exercise bet. The idea was inspired by a similar bet made between Blitzkrieg and Btimm. Turning it into a competition should help keep me strongly motivated for a long period of time. The real hurdle comes in a couple weeks when my inflated enthusiasm for this naturally begins to lessen. However, I recognize now that this needs to become a long-term life change for me. My ultimate goal is to be the 70 year old grandfather who is completely "with it" mentally and physically. Too many Americans wake up one day, realize they're 40 years old, rely on caffeine to keep them going throughout the day, have a huge beer gut, and have already crept down the path towards heart disease.

I have a revelation that many poker players will understand easily: Life is a game! It is an incredibly complex game with an infinite number of parameters, but it is simply a game. Some people play it better than others. You need to understand how the system works and then devise the best way to benefit from it. This applies to everything: general social acceptance, career accomplishments, money, successfully raising a family, physical health, etc. Thinking about it like this makes me happy every day to wake up and figure how I can better myself to make most of this game.

Trips with poker players = ++EV

I recently returned from spending a week in Jamaica with John (PuddlePirate/urmyatm44 on Full Tilt) for spring break. The experience was great and I definitely have the traveling bug now. We stayed at a 4 star resort in Negril, the spring break capital of Jamaica. Our resort had virtually no college students at it, but it was gorgeous and featured unlimited food and alcohol. We actually had a fairly tame time and spent much of it doing outdoors stuff. Scuba diving, snorkeling, and jumping off a 50 foot into the ocean (subsequently resulting in a bruised tailbone for myself) to name some of the activities. I'll post pictures when John uploads them.

The biggest upside from the vacation was a renewed enthusiasm for poker. John's passion for the game is contagious. We discussed theory, the online poker economy, and even played an insane 2/4 deep session against each other one night. By the time I returned home, my enthusiasm for the game was the highest it had been in several months. I played 3400 hands in the first two days back home. The argument could easily be made that this in itself pays for the trip in full.

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I have come to terms with the state of HU poker. Games are extremely dried up on weekdays, but are still decent on weekends. It is now crucial for me to grind a lot on weekends, even if it means sacrificing some other things on Friday through Sunday. My general goal indefinitely is to play ~3K hands each weekend, and concentrate my other priorities during weekdays. This is the only way I can still realistically get 20K hands a month in without having to play the better regs, or learning 6 max or PLO. However, I will strongly consider adding the latter options to my repertoire after graduation.

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I have some bad habits with blogging. Topics will often pop into my head that I am enthusiastic to write about, but then I put it off. As the number of topics continues to build in my head, collectively they become convoluted. As a result, I wind up making entries that are simply bland updates about my life. All of my favorite blogs to read are updated at sporadic, inconsistent time intervals and about a wide variety of topics. I need to impulsively type up my thoughts on any interesting topic, even if it results in more frequent 1-2 paragraph entries. Too much planning is a problem!

Much respect to skinny yoga girls!

February was mediocre at best. HU economy has been extremely slow, and now my results rely largely on how much I can play (and how well) on weekends. Even so, I did not put in nearly enough hands. My confidence in my game has slowly been increasing again compared to a few weeks ago, so here's to a successful March.



I took power yoga for the first time last week. It takes place in a 90 degree room, resulting in the most intense 75 minute workout that I have ever experienced. You do not just drip sweat, you drizzle sweat for the entire session. I had to do some dumbed down versions of the yoga poses due to limited flexibility, and my endurance was completely giving out well before the end. The strength, flexibility and endurance that many of the women in the class had was extremely impressive. It's an awesome workout. I'm going to take some basic classes to get the fundamentals down well. Once I get back from spring break, my workout regiment will be compromised of yoga 2x a week and lifting 3x a week. Should be a great way to get in shape.

My 22nd birthday took place on Friday. My roommate and I decided to throw a house party to celebrate, especially since this is the first time my birthday has fallen on a weekend in several years. About 25-30 people attended and everything went really well. I have developed a close group of friends here at Pitt, and it's something I've had nothing like in my entire life before. I do not take college for granted and will definitely make the most of these last months we have together.

I am now leaning towards renting out my Pittsburgh apartment for another year. I'd use 2009-2010 as a transition period where I figure out where I want to live and what I want to do with my life. My rent is relatively cheap compared to the other options. This would allow me to do a ton of traveling and not feel like I'm throwing a lot of money away on housing costs. If I go this route, I would likely visit Spain/Italy, San Fran, LA, Austin TX, and possibly southeast Asia. As long as I have broadband internet, the world is my oyster!

Still don't believe in karma, but...

Full Tilt just banned my chat privileges for 3 months. I mentioned in a blog entry months ago about my tendency to cross the line in chat. When frustrated in a match online (particularly against competent players), I have berated my opponent.

Here's the email. Yes, part of the reason I'm posting it is for humor, but also as a form of public humiliation for myself. It's hard to believe that any adult would talk like this to other people, let alone a professional poker player. I very rarely talk like this against complete fish, but that does not make it any more acceptable.


The chat ban has definitely been punishment, and it's costing me a lot of money.
-If I need to go to the bathroom, I can't tell my opponent this. My 2 options are to either hold it in, or just sit out and pray that they will still be sitting when I return. The latter rarely works.
-People get alienated when they ask me a question during a match and subsequently think I'm ignoring them.
-If I have played a fish in the past and discover them sitting in a different game, I cannot ask them if they want to play heads-up NL again.

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If you guys don't read Raptor's blog by now, you absolutely should. I believe he has the best blog of any poker player. It covers all aspects of life, and has been great motivation for me in terms of diet & exercise. I have begun to learn a lot about nutrition and my overall diet is excellent at this point. My work ethic with exercise is inconsistent, but lately I have been back on the ball. I'm not shooting for bulking OR cutting, but just to be overall more fit. I'm roughly 5'8", 145 pounds, 15% body fat right now. My goal is to get to 150 pounds and 10% body fat over the next couple months.

A specific aspect of Raptor's blog that fascinates me is how he has taken up Jiu Jitsu. I have not played an organized sport since middle school, and jiu jitsu seems like the ultimate sport. It involves strength, endurance, reflexes, and reading your opponent. I've found a gym that does group jiu jitsu in Pittsburgh, and will likely try it out after spring break. In the mean time, I need to continue lifting in the gym and doing cardio in order to increase my overall fitness level before I even attempt jiu jitsu.

Stephen Bennett, professor

This week I am lecturing a class called "General Poker Theory". My friend Danny is the instructor and wanted me to guest speak. He created the class (1 credit course) at his school, Carnegie Mellon, which is probably the best overall university in Pittsburgh. The class has 2 sections that meet on Monday and Wednesday evening. I chose to lecture about turn & river play. Some of the concepts include double/triple barreling and value betting thin.

Only about 15 students showed up for Monday's class, but they were very enthusiastic and assaulted me with questions. The lecture would have only lasted about 20 minutes if people didn't participate (I don't think I made the Powerpoint long enough). However, the class lasted 45 minutes with the high level of student involvement. It is very gratifying to be able to teach a large group of people, and know they have the confidence in your knowledge on the subject. Wednesday's class should be 30-40 students and I'm definitely looking forward to it.

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In other news, I am going to Jamaica with John/PuddlePirate for spring break. We booked a stay at a 4 star resort in the city of Negril. I haven't experienced spring break yet, nor gone anywhere international in many years. Even though it is only the two of us going, we are outgoing guys... I expect to have no trouble making friends. I wanted to go to the Caribbean and not Mexico/Florida. I'd like a spring break that is slightly more diverse than 7 straight days of being shit-faced in a huge sea of college students. This way, we will party but also get to try scuba diving, riding dolphins, get pampered by the resort, etc.

Here to stay, ladies and gents

January was strange. I had two $5K days and basically broke even for the rest of the month. I know it sounds bizarre to complain when I won almost $1/hand, but my confidence in poker has not been great lately. The state of the HU poker economy has really stung me. I have to wait so long for games, and the wait itself frustrates me and can take me off my A-game before a match even begins.



My poker game has been completely complacent the last 6 months. I had great months in October and November, solidifying the incorrect belief that my game needs zero work. My confidence has begun to break down lately and it's time for change. I finally gave in and purchased Hold 'Em Manager a week ago. I have been using PokerTracker 2 for the longest time. Watching poker instructional videos is another must. I have not watched one in probably 4 months... quite alarming given that I pay for 2 subscriptions. Most other online winners are watch videos regularly. If I continue to neglect this, I will fall behind the rest of the pack.

In the non-poker world, I went out more in January 2009 than any other month of my life to date. My passion lately has been on improving my overall social skills, in particular with women. I've become a voracious reader on the topics of social dynamics and body language. On a related note, my wardrobe has also improved greatly over the past month or two. I'm finally graduating to my own style of fashion and leaving the American Eagle's of the world.

P.S. You guys fully have the right to hassle me if I go too long without blogging.

Okay so, 2008 was pretty badass

I can honestly say that 2008 was the best year of my life to date. I had a solid results at poker, lived in Vegas for a month, made some close friends, moved out of the ghetto, and I'm sure other highlights I forgot while writing this. Most of all, I came to realize how much freedom my life has and appreciate that. We are all very fortunate to have even found poker in the first place. No one should complain about running badly without first taking a step back. We all run extremely above EV at life in comparison to the Earth's population as a whole.

My December was really dismal poker-wise, winning $2K over 10K hands. I had no desire to play for most of the month. When I did play, it was half-assed and I was often doing other things. I also came to the realization that I have not fully watched a poker video in months, nor discussed general theory with anyone. Complacency FTW! Thus I blame the results mostly on myself. That being said, December was the worst month ever in terms of the HU poker economy. Everyone seems to be playing heads-up now and wait times have become ridiculous. It is disheartening, but I still believe that my best bet is to focus on HU cash.

I got dinner with IHaveAStrong9, odub, and Fees the other day. We went to Del Frisco's, an upper tier steakhouse near downtown Philadelphia. The dinner was amazing (albeit incredibly decadent). Fees ordered a $200 bottle of wine and 5 pounds of lobster and just assumed we'd all approve of it. We hung out back at IHaveAStrong9's frat house at UPenn afterwards. All three of those guys are awesome, and give extra incentive for me to consider moving to Philly after graduation. (Actually Fees is moving to LA unfortunately.) I grew up in the Philly suburbs, but now I'm considering moving in the heart of the city.

From left to right: Myself, IHaveAStrong9, odub, Fees



2009 New Years resolutions:
-Exercise with improved consistency and effort. Decrease body fat from current 16-17% down to 11%.
-Make $250K+ over $250K hands.
-Go out much more often; have more success with women than ever before.
-Travel to 2+ places internationally.

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

Life is full of 180s

Poker has been rough the last 4 days. Things have definitely cooled down. In my opinion, the recent struggle has largely been my fault. I have become complacent AND impatient with poker. After being on a heater, I have begun going into every match thinking I can play sloppily and still come out a big winner. I have begun making very unjustifiable call-downs, FPS plays, and other -EV plays. The full realization of this came to me today, and I decided to voluntarily freeze my Full Tilt account for 2 days. I could definitely use the breather.

Abruptly stressing over academics hasn't helped the situation either. Back in August, I made a blog entry that set a goal of getting a 4.0 GPA this semester. Well, I completely aborted that plan by September. My attendance rate is slightly improved this semester (still well below the student average), but I spend almost zero time doing work outside of class. Courses have become more difficult in senior year, and it's showing. Today, reality hit me: I am way behind in most of my classes. This has caused me to stress quite a lot now that I realize final exams are right around the corner. I'm trying to combat this by setting a To-Do List for each class, and prioritizing what I need to do in order to salvage my GPA for the semester.

At least Thanksgiving break is coming up. It's a well-timed break since I could use some relaxation, and a change of scenery.

Stephen grind? lolololol

Something strange has happened, and I don't like it. If anyone here can help me cure this solution, I would greatly appreciate it. The problem: I've actually had motivation to grind! I'm on pace to play over 25K hands this month. This may not sound like much to a lot of you guys... but for a HU player who is in school full time, it isn't easy. Anyway, I've actually been grinding while having good results, which is even more surprising. Usually if I'm grinding it's because I'm trying to get unstuck. This seems to hold true with many other players.

Many of those who read this blog don't actually have a Facebook (what is WRONG with you people?!)... but to those that do, I have an interesting question. I have been contemplating deleting some people who have friended me on facebook over the 4 years I've had it. There is something very unnatural about how Facebook permanentely glues you to every random acquaintence, girl you went on a date with, etc. The natural process in life is for people to slowly fall out of your life. Problem is, it's considered rude (and even malicious, to some) to unfriend someone without ample reasoning. Anyone have thoughts on this?

I am going on vacation with John/PuddlePirate and Ryan/WOWURBAD next month. I haven't traveled nearly as much as I would like to, so this should be a good start. I made a $100 cross-bet with John on getting all our passport stuff mailed out for rush order by today (Friday). The bet seemed to be very beneficial since it stopped us from procrastinating. We have not decided where we want to go yet, but I think we are leaning towards somewhere in the Caribbean or South America for a week. We want to go somewhere warm with young people and things to do. Suggestions are more than welcome, as none of us seem to be terribly knowledge on locations. There seem to be dozens of choices just within the Caribbean.

The sickness continues

This week has been an emotional rollercoaster, to say the least. I had the worst single session on Monday, losing $7K at 5/10 NL to a guy who is a mediocre reg at best. I ended up bouncing back from that two days later and having my first ever $10K day, followed by a $4.5K win the next day. You would think Im playing larger than just 2/4 - 5/10 based on the swings I've been having lately. Overall, I'm still on a ridiculous heater that I don't expect to last. My winrate over the last few months is not representative of what someone can win over the long run. That being said, I feel like I'm extremely well-adept to the games I play. One trick pony perhaps, but who cares? If some day it gets to the point that I need to become proficient at other forms of poker, I am confident I will be able to make the switch. In the mean time, I love the form of poker I specialize in. It would be difficult to make the argument that any of the time I dedicate to poker should be spent becoming a more "well-rounded" player.

Last night, my roommate Evan and I threw a house party. At University of Pittsburgh, most people live in the section of the city that the campus is located (Oakland). I moved to the section next to it so I didn't have to live in the ghetto anymore, but getting friends to visit my current place can be difficult. We managed to get 20-25 people here and the party went really well. I've come to appreciate my college years more as time goes on, and these really have been the best years of my life. I remember during adolesence that many people would seemingly exaggerate about how great college is. Well, it's been everything it was cracked up to be for me. Now I'm just afraid that life gets much more boring after graduation.

October results

Okay so if you can't tell, I ran like god in October. My work ethic was awful, yet I got rewarded. I used to tease my friend IHaveAStrong9 for having months like this, and now it would be hypocritical. In spite of the fact that this was my best month to date, it is still pretty sad how few hands I logged in. I spend too much time talking on AIM, railing high stakes games, browsing mindless forum discussion, and doing other unproductive activities. A big leak I have is mentally set a rough monetary goal for each month. Once I hit that plateau, I become unmotivated to grind.

Probably the biggest highlight of the month was one of my final matches. On October 31st, I played Huck Seed at about 11 AM eastern time. He spewed like a completely monkey and essentially handed me $3K. Once I reflected on the session, I realized it was very early on the west coast and he was likely drunk from the night before. Regardless, it still feels good to beat up on a red pro who has been on TV many times, and is even touted by his peers for supposedly being a very good heads-up player.

On a lighter note... this was the first year that I fully experienced Halloween since childhood. Halloween is incredibly fun while in college, but I didn't take advantage of it until now. I went to a couple haunted houses, rented horror movies, and spent a good bit of time brainstorming my costume (I was a rapper). My close friends had a big Halloween party on Friday. It was going really well until the Pittsburgh police broke up the party. I would say 90%+ of the people there were of legal drinking age. No one was arrested fortunately, but it was still incredibly frustrating to have a good party ruined.

Best day ever in cash games

I kicked ass and took names yesterday, winning $7.5K over 1.5K hands. This is the most I've ever won in a single day (in cash games) to date. Just like any time period where you run really hot, I both outplayed people and got lucky. I was lucky to land fish at all stakes. Most of them had more than a measly 40 big blinds to lose. Heaters definitely make you feel on top of the world, even if you logically understand you're experiencing the good side of variance. Here are a couple of the most interesting hands from yesterday:

Hand 1: I looove hero calling.
This is the opponent I won the most from yesterday. He was solid for the most part but made a few spewy plays postflop that made him quite +EV to play. Timing tells played a big part here, but my gut also told me he wouldn't over-bet shove a king here.

Hand 2: Where do I find these people?
I had a couple hands yesterday where my opponents literally just gave me 100BB+ on a silver platter. Not that this would be a fold against most people anyway, but this is the biggest snap call ever given how maniacal he was playing.

Hand 3: Awkward spot with OESD in 3 bet pot.
I asked a couple friends about this hand already. My opponent had been pretty snug, but at the same time I had little/no grasp on how he played postflop, especially in 3 bet pots. It was hard to imagine that he would raise the flop with Qx, especially given the fact that I had been pushing him around during the match. In spots like this, I expect my opponent to just call down with a TP-type hand. Given he has little money left after his raise, it seems apparent I have little fold equity. Regardless, I thought a shove seemed right (and still like it) given my equity versus his range.

Hand 4: Suckouts are inevitable on your biggest day ever.
This looks pretty gross for multiple reasons. My double barrel versus this opponent is questionable since I'm going to get little credit given how draw-heavy the board is. I also apparently suck at poker math, because I'm not getting the 4.1-to-1 needed to call when he shoves the turn. I can imagine he was throwing stuff.

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Last night I also went to a Belgian restaurant with a couple friends. They had a large beer selection with many hard-to-find imports, and great food all around. Their specialty is an appetizer with a pound of mussels in a white wine sauce, served with a side of pomme frites (french fries) that you dip in mayonnaise. Probably the best appetizer I've ever had. A female friend of mine has agreed to do a tour of different restaurants throughout Pittsburgh this year. In recent years, I've greatly expanded what foods I'm willing to try, so it will be interesting to experience the exotic dining hidden throughout the city.

Should be doing one of 17 other things

For the first time in my life, I feel like my plate is completely full. I have enough activities and obligations that I need to actually develop good time management to get everything accomplished. That being said, I'm doing a shitty job at time management thus far. I've played an embarrassingly amount of hands so far this month, and I'm not getting consistent piano practice in. Anyone have advice on how to manage my time better?

By the way... I don't know about you guys, but I still love to rail the high stakes games. I doubt these 500/1K NL games are going to run for a long time, so I try to stay updated on what has been happening in the games lately. The supposed NL fish (David Benyamine, Ziigmund, Gus Hansen) have been running really well in the games, which adds a huge twist. Patrik being the biggest loser is probably even more shocking. We've all had pre-conceived opinions about who the best NL hold em players in the world before these games ran, and these beliefs are being questioned for essentially the first time in a long time. Nosebleed NL has not run regularly since summer 2007.

Relaxing back home

I have been back home in the Philadelphia area since Friday. University of Pittsburgh gave students a short fall break (1 day off, to be exact) for the first time. Usually I only drive back home during academic breaks, so it was nice to get to see my family before Thanksgiving. My mom (whose house is my primary residence while home from school) lives in a fairly rural setting. Being here reminds me of how much I love nature, and would like to be a homeowner with a large yard. Home also reminds me of how much I want to have a dog (or two). My mom has a golden retriever and a chocolate lab, while my dad has a yellow lab. Big dogs are awesome, and I believe having pets is a great compliment for being a professional poker player.

Lately, I have an increasing appreciation for poker as a profession. Many of us young poker players are quick to complain about any possible negative aspect. We take for granted that this is one of the only things that you can easily make 6 digits as a young person with little/no assets, as well as the copious amount of freedom poker provides. Yes, the amount of human interaction is limited. It forces poker players to either be happy with ample time to themselves (which does not apply to me), or work harder to maintain an active social life. Fortunately, college has helped me have an easily-accessible social network. This does makes me scared about how life will change after graduation next year.

I met with my new accountant for the first time today. We had a long consultation where I outlined what being a poker professional is like. He advised what I should be doing to prepare for the upcoming tax season. He also commented at the end of the consultation that I was one of the most unique clients that he has met in a while. I strongly, strongly advise any US poker professional to talk extensively with an accountant about how to file. We are in an incredibly unique situation, and with that comes extra responsibility to file as accurately and thriftily as possible.

Weekend happenings

On Friday night, I participated in a drinking competition. I am honestly not much of a drinker... I do it socially about once a week, and rarely get hammered. However, I decided to be captain and form a team when a friend informed me of the event. Teams comprised of 8 people. Each had to drink the following: 12 bottles of beer, a fifth of vodka, and one box of wine. Somehow, a team completed the competition in merely 16 minutes. I suspected that whoever was responsible for the boxed wine would suffer the most. My friend Ben (who, of course, chugged the boxed wine) ended up blacking out, and we had to carry him home. Needless to say - it was a fun experience, but competitive drinking is extremely illogical from a health perspective.



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I have taken 3 piano lessons so far, and enjoy it a lot. My teacher has a background in classical music and is focusing on me building strong fundamentals. If I don't mind going through music-reading and finger-strengthening exercises, then it will be awesome once I begin learning actual songs. It is disappointing that I have a very poor singing voice, though. I'm considering getting a vocal teacher sometime in the next few months so I can at least improve from an awful singer to a mediocre singer, and combine that with my newly-learned piano skills. I definitely get a satisfying feeling from getting back into music for the first time since I was 14 years old. It is a great way to challenge myself, use my creativity, and express myself. If you're like me and feel that life needs to feel more fulfilling, I strongly recommend doing something musical.

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I'm very objective about the poker economy, and constantly analyze the bigger picture. As I've said before, it is undeniable that poker is a negative sum game. Rake, taxes, and cashouts (especially by professionals to cover their expenses) mean that the poker economy is constantly shrinking. The only way to balance this depletion is for new blood to be constantly depositing money into the economy. This simply is not occurring at a large enough rate to offset the factors mentioned. As a result, the poker economy is drying up. It is not strongly related to the state of the US economy. It is also NOT strongly related to the legislation passed about online gaming in 2006. Online poker does not even resemble what it did two years ago, and conditions are unlikely to improve. That being said, I will continue to play poker for as long as I can comfortably make 6 figures doing so. I'm already starting to consider my other options for what to do after poker, because I don't realistically envision this being my main source of income 5 years from now.

September Results

September ended well and was NOT my worst month after all, but it was the most challenging. I went through my biggest downswing ever ($13.5K, or roughly 17 buy-ins). On a positive note, I did not let the downswing affect my overall outlook on life. I have a tendency to get depressed during downswings, allowing it to affect my entire life. 2008 has been a mostly joyful year with few bumps in the road. I had a conversation with a friend about this, and we agree that good HU players at mid-stakes NL rarely go through big downswings. Rather, they do endure breakeven stretches. Thus, it is a testament to my mental toughness that I stayed strong during this downswing, in spite of it being my first big downswing in a long time.





My confidence in my poker game is higher now than it was 30 days ago (surprisingly). Now my work ethic is what needs improvement. Playing 15-18K hands a month is not sufficient. Granted, I do lead a more balanced life now. I have other hobbies, difficult classes, and make a stronger effort to socialize on weekends. However, I should still be able to log about 100 hours a month (which comes to 25-30K hands of heads up). Do you guys do anything specific to push yourself to play poker during times when you aren't busy, but don't have a strong drive to play?

I'm going to make more of an effort to discuss my private life from now on. I find that the most interesting poker blogs are ones in which the blogger updates about their personal life. Writing is very therapeutic for me, and my blog would likely be more interesting if I include aspects of my personal life. I'm a very extroverted person by nature, and enjoy expressing things to others. Besides... I'd like to think that my life is somewhat interesting enough. ;)

Goals for October:
-Play 20 to 30K hands
-Ease back into playing 5/10 NL heads up
-Play live a couple times
-Begin playing tennis regularly
-Continue practicing piano for 5+ hours a week

Not as emo lately

Poker has been going better lately. I was stuck $7K for the month around the time of the last entry, and decided to finally take it easy for a few days. I began playing again recently, and as of right now I'm only stuck $1K. This month is most frustrating because I'm killing 2/4, but getting murdered at 3/6 and 5/10. I remember Dodgyken blogged about the same problem months ago, but couldn't relate to him at the time. It sucks. I can't even imagine what it's like to be OMGClayAiken and kill 25/50 (which is a very difficult game), but then run bad at 200/400.

I have been watching the presidential election pretty closely for the past year. I consider myself a Libertarian because I generally advocate having smaller government and more individual responsibility, but don't affiliate with any political party. While my views differ quite drastically from both of the two main candidates, I generally have sympathized more with Barack Obama. I feel like he is much more of an intellectual, and more charismatic than John McCain. However, lately Obama has really begun to turn me off. He has the most liberal voting record in the Senate, and always seems to believe government intervention is the best policy with any issue. Lately I've gotten the impression he is basically a soft socialist, which really scares the shit out of me. On the other hand, I'm not exactly an advocate of McCain's foreign policy. I'll probably be voting for a 3rd party candidate in November.

Tomorrow I begin piano lessons. My life needs more balance, and doing something musical definitely seems like a step in the right direction. I played alto saxophone for about 4 years during adolescence, and would say that overall I love music, but haven't played anything since. I decided not to take up guitar because it seems so cliche. If the lessons go well, I'll probably purchase a keyboard in order to practice at my apartment. One more activity that is definitely missing in my life is organized sports. About two months ago I talked about playing tennis regularly, but have been lazy about doing so since returning to Pittsburgh. I should set a goal to be able to play intramural tennis (or something similar) by next year so I start getting out and playing much more often.

Big hill to climb now

Three days ago I had another large loss in a HU match, this time -$5K at 5/10. I realized that I was in the worst downswing of my poker career. I was also off to the worst start ever for a month. I decided after this that it was time to take a break from 5/10 for now. I'm now on a mission to grind my results for the month back to even before I play anymore 5/10. I'm still an overall winner at these stakes and feel like my play has been fine. However, the losses at those stakes affect my psyche a little too much still.

I do believe that my game has gone astray the past month or two. I have made -EV calldowns and suicide bluff attempts. It's as if I have become the most impatient poker player in the world. Now that I've finally begun to realize this problem, I am working hard to correct it. I'm beginning to discuss hands with friends again, and occasionally watch instructional videos. It's not as if I have forgotten how to play poker, it is just that my game needs to be detailed or something.

I hope poker is going well for everyone. It seems as if many of my poker friends are losing an interest in poker (or at least losing an interest in blogging about it). I guess this is not surprising because poker resembles a hobby more than a job, and passion for hobbies often fades.