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.

Now offering HU coaching

Last night, I played my friend cntgetmedown in a late-night HU match. Luckily, it was only at 100NL. We 2-tabled for about 500 hands, and I lost 5.5 buy-ins. I overplayed a few hands, but it was mostly cooler situations. That's usually the case when someone loses so much money in a short period. Daniell plays pretty LAG, so he had a great image to get paid off with the many strong hands he had.

The NCAA tournament is occurring now, and it has reminded me how much I've fallen out of love with watching sports. Back in junior and senior year of high school, watching sports was my #1 hobby. I followed the NFL, NHL, and college basketball (in that order) really closely. Two factors have really diminished my enthusiasm: poker, and college. Poker (not limited to just playing) has replaced many of my previous hobbies, because it consumes a lot of my time and energy. Also, moving to Pittsburgh for college has made it difficult for me to closely follow the Philadelphia Eagles and Flyers as much as I used to. It's a bit depressing, but I have a feeling that I will have a reunion with my teams once I move back to the Philadelphia area after college.

One more thing - I am now offering heads-up coaching. HU is by far my strongest game now, and my results have been solid enough to justify coaching. Since coaching is a new thing for me, I am going to start off with a low rate ($80/hr) while I gain experience coaching. I can only take up to 2 students for now, since I also have to allot time to grinding and academics. If you are interested, contact me on AIM (ShadyBreakfast) or 2+2 (Whitewash). Here is a screenshot of my lifetime results at 2/4 NL heads-up, which started last fall:

Tweaking my HU game

I'm on a heater the past week, which feels great. A break-even month has turned into a really solid month suddenly. I'm playing well, and I've tweaked a few aspects of my HU game. I'm c-betting more. I checked behind on the flop way too much, and it wasn't working for me. I am also making more laydowns than I was incapable of during my recent break-even stretch.

I am still very enthusiastic about poker. When I win a big pot, I still often fist pump or say "yes!". While these things are certainly not vital to being a good player (and you could argue a winning player should be less emotional about results), I am happy that it illustrates how much I still enjoy playing poker. 2.5 years of playing poker seriously, with the typical rough patches that poker players go through, and I still love this game. Given the fact that I've gone through fads my whole life, this is definitely a good sign that I'm still alive-and-kicking with poker.

A little off-topic: Do you guys know anything about female online poker grinders? I'm just curious as to whether they're out there. I know Vanessa Selbst use to beat high stakes, but she doesn't play much anymore (as far as I know). Online poker is way way dominated by males, but it would definitely be cool to hear of women who are grinding 400NL or higher online.

I <33 my neighborhood

This morning, I found out that someone smashed the driver's side window of my car, and stole my GPS. My car was parked right outside of my house at school. We live in a beat-up part of Pittsburgh, but until now I wasn't so suspicious that I felt it necessary to hide my GPS every time I park.



Here is the scariest part - 15 minutes after I find out, I went back inside my house for a minute, and when I went back outside there was a guy rummaging through my car. WHAT THE FUCK. I screamed at him and told him the police were already on their way. He had my watch (I use it for running, its only worth like $30) in his hand, but gave it back, apologized and then left.

It's amazing how so many people are criticizing me because my GPS wasn't hidden. I just spent the entire afternoon filing a police report, filing a claim with my insurance company, cleaning up the shattered glass, and now I have to pay about $350 to deal with this whole mess. The only feedback some important people in my life give me is "your GPS shouldn't have been easily seen". Thanks for the consolation, everyone. I forgot that I'm supposed to assume the absolute worst outcome in every scenario in my life, and plan accordingly. To criticize me for this is like criticizing someone when they break their arm playing baseball. It's ridiculous.

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On a lighter note, for the first time in over a month, I feel like I'm pulling out of my poker slump. I'm up $4K the past 3 days, and I'm really motivated to grind lately.