6/19 update

What's up playa playas?

Well, I wouldn't say I've been grinding to the fullest of my potential, but I've definitely been grinding as much or more than I ever have.

I've missed a few days of play because I've been going out a lot lately and getting drinks (and drunk). My sleep schedule is all fucked up, as always, so some days I wake up at 7-8pm and get a call to go out with some friends.

Poker has been going well. I picked a good time to get on my grind because I've been doing some crushing lately.

I've played around 700 games and am up right around $9.5k after rakeback. I did miss a few full days and 1 or 2 half days of grinding but I'm still on pace to play >1,200 this month and if my results continue on anything similar to this trend I'll be very happy with the month of July.

I'm not so sure how possible getting top20 FTP leaderboard will be. I'm not very far off (32) and if I don't skip days I think I can still make it, but it's going to be tougher than I thought.

On the other hand, I remembered the site I am signed up to has a monthly Rake Race and the other day when I got a gander at it I was 2nd on the LB, not far behind first. 1st is $1,200 so I'm hoping I can bag that, but ultimately anything in the top 3 is OK with me.

I haven't done much coaching this month, in fact I really need to fix my schedule because there are 3 guys I really like who wanted to book some time but so far I haven't been able to get around to it.

With the good poker month and the active social life I would think I'd be more happy then I am right now. To be honest I've felt kind of down mostly and I need to turn that around. I hate getting all emo. I haven't been to the gym in forever. Maybe I'll do that tonight.

Well, I'm going to go grab some late night McD's. See you guys later.

First Week

I don't plan on always doing weekly results updates but whatever it's 6am and I can't sleep so...

270 games, $3,240 profit.

Not bad. I did miss 2 full days of play like I said last post, and today I only played around 30 games because I just couldn't get focused.

Life outside of poker has been pretty boring. I really haven't gotten out of the house much in the last two weeks or so. Not that I really mind, I kind of wanted to take a break from going out every night, but now I think I'm starting to get a little stir-crazy especially since I'm living by myself.

Made it to the gym again today. I had been missing a ton of workouts over the last month or two and am trying to get back in the swing of things. I've already seen great improvements from the gym but I really need to stick with it if I want to see the results I really want.

... alright I'm going to try to get some sleep. Nite.

Good Day

Didn't get to play any poker last two days because of prior engagements + waking up way too late. Last night (4th of July) I woke up around 7:30pm, went out, got back and took a nap from 3am - 5am. Went to the gym around 7:30am, got back took a 5hr energy and grinded poker for a little over 5 hours.

Games were loading really slow so I only got in 47 games but I played and ran really well. Made something like $2,400 after rakeback.

I'm about to pass out now but I figured I'd share a good day with you guys. Back to the grind when I wake up.

This is what makes it all possible:

And here are my July results so far:

nite.

Still at it

Good news: I've still been grinding!

I'm running insanely bad but still trucking along. I have some July goals that I wanted to share with you guys

- 1,200+ games (av stake >$100)

- Top 20 on the FTP high-limit SnG Leader-Board

- Review a solid amount (coaching my students counts)

That's it. No profit goals or anything like that. If I play 1,200 games I should make around $4k in rakeback, and another $1k (if not more) in bonuses. I can't control how I run so there is no point in setting any profit goals for such a small sample of games.

I got the random motivation to become one of the top SnG players, which means I need to make sure I play solid and most importantly put in a shit ton of volume. Because in the end all that matters is how much money you make - I could be the best player in the world (trust me, I'm not) but if I keep playing less than 1,000 games (sometimes 0) a month I'm not going to accomplish anything but just getting by.

Today only managed to get 40 games in 4 hours because for some reason they were running deathly slow. I would've played an hour or two more but there were literally no $119s or $236s with anyone but me in the lobby for a good 15 minutes and I only had 3 tables running at the time.

June Results

Didn't play much, if at all, the first two weeks of June but the last two weeks I've been grinding which is great. It's about time.

Games Played: 889

Profit: $2,220

RakeBack: $2,200

Bonuses: $300

Steps: $1,500

Coaching: $500

total: $6,720

this is bringing me out of the breakeven stretch I've been on the for the last ~2k games which was really killing my confidence, though TBH I'm not extremely happy with the results but again I can't complain. I'm just happy that I'm finally grinding and planning on keeping it up.

Yesterday and today were obviously brutal days :(

Life is crazy

My good friend, poker student and roommate Killa just left the apartment, for good, 5 minutes ago.
Two days ago his sister was found dead in her home - and now he's flying back to his home-town to be with his mother and family. Because of his visa status he won't be able to come back to the US. He's going to apply for a new one but it's safe to say he won't be back any time soon.
I obviously feel horrible about what he and his family are going through.
He was a great roommate and is a great person overall and I wish him the best and all the strength in the world to get him through this. It's going to suck not having him as a roommate anymore.

life is crazy, shit can hit you from nowhere, life is short... enjoy it.

Updateaments

What's going on world?

I know, I suck at updating my blog. To be honest I wasn't even thinking about the blog but a friend of mine brought it up today and said he'd like an update so I figured I'd get back at it.
Blogger.com has some new layout design thing so I tried tinkering with that and this is what I came up with. Hope you like it :). If not let me know so I can change it to something easier on the eyes.

Not too much has changed in poker since my last update. I still suck at grinding, but I have been putting in some volume over the last couple of days and I hope I continue to do so.
I've said it a zillion times but I hate the fact that I've let so much money just pass me by because I made enough money to pay bills and go out and have fun and was content. Financially I'm fine at the moment as long as the games stay the way they are but you can never be sure of something like that and I really will be kicking myself in the future if something happens and I'm not able to make the kind of money I can make right now. I don't put the same kind of value on money that most people do - I'm young and don't have any real responsibilities (i.e; kids) yet so it's not like I'm really worried about being broke but at the same time I know that I should be saving up.

In some non-poker news I started working out a few months ago (not sure if I mentioned it here or not) and really putting an emphasis on not being such a weak skinny POS. At the time I was 5'9" around 145lbs - I started a program called "Starting Strength" by Mark Rippetoe which is basically a 3x a week program of compound weight lifts (for me: squat, bench, deadlifsts, press, and chinups). I am now sitting around 172lbs. I went from squatting 85lbs (3sets, 5 reps) to squatting 245lbs. The progress was pretty sick and I've gotten a lot of attention and complements (as well as accusations of steroid use, lol) for it lately. It's a really awesome feeling and I'd recommend for anyone to give it a try. A lot of guys I know have been in the gym for years and not seen the results I saw in a few months. If you're interested give me a shout out and I'll answer any questions I can.

OK back to poker. I've been on a bit of a break-even stretch, I think just over 2k games, which is totally standard but it is annoying and it definitely hits your confidence a little bit. I've decided at least for now I'm going to play more $60s and less $236s for a little while to decrease my variance. I'm sure it's a little bit -EV for me to do this short-term but I have a feeling if I crush the 60s and 119s for a while like I know I should then I'll feel better and be able to grind the 119s and 236s more which is definitely +EV long-term.

I've been playing some of the WSOP "Step" tournaments on FTP. I've played a few step 6's and so far have played two step 7's. Both times I lost the step 7s to a guy named jossel - one in 3rd place and one in 4th place (AA < 22 ... sigh). He's a really good player and I actually got to chat with him a bit and seems like a nice guy. I'm going to be playing another one probably tomorrow. It would be a little too nice to snap one of them off for the $12k so I don't think it's going to happen, but I can dream, can't I?

OK hopefully this has caught you guys up to speed. I'll try to update more frequently but for now I'm going to go rent a movie on iTunes and pass out.

Nite.