Where I'm At

The past few weeks have been pretty sweet. My back is finally better so I can start running and bballing again, which is definitely missed. First and foremost though, one of my poker buddies, Toots just launched a great blog, which he already left an incredibly chock-full post of poker content in his Odyssey of heads up cash. Definitely a must-read.

With poker, I go in phases. Lately, I have become a sng reg. It's been definitely a profitable journey thus far. I seem to change my mind with my direction, but I'm open to change. During the last week of finals, I went on a crazy tilt. Obviously my mind was not in the optimal mindset and I steamrolled my bankroll down into the 200's when I was at around 400. It was mostly tournaments, but sixty dollars of cash to that I lost quicker than Hellmuth playing that crazy Chinese Poker.

SNG's
My new thing, which I've played about 100-150 sng's in a week and a half span is to 4-5 table the 6.50 turbo's On Full Tilt. I usually play three 9-man's and one 18-27man. This allows me to get more experience in the 18-man format where I definitely lack skill and experience compared to my 9-man takedowns. Lately, I have taken down two 18 man's and came in 2nd in a 27-man, which definitely gives me confidence in my game as well as a boost in ROI. I got up to as high as 340 in my roll and cashed out a bit to treat the gf for our two year anniversary. Kinda crazy to think it's been that long already, but pretty sweet too =).

My Goal
I think a very attainable goal by the end of the summer is to make enough money to pay off my books for next semester. I am certainly not working as much as I was last summer, so some extra income would be great. Other news, I got another final table under my belt cming in fourth out of 244 people for a nice cash as well. These past few weeks has definitely been a profitable one,raking in about $265 from mostly just $6.50 buy-ins, but also showing me that this MOFO has a bit of skilllzz!!! But also, this situation doesn't hurt either.

Mookie

I'm going to play the Mookie tonight. That is all. =) =). First time for everything.

Being grateful

So despite this lovely economy, yours truly has a summer job. However, I'm not sure if this is how the business world works, but does every job require connections? My first job in High School I worked at the local ACE hardware. I got the job because I knew the bosses son. Second job, worked for Kelloggs cereal. Got the job because my dad's girlfriend works for Kelloggs. This new job, my best friend's sister works for the deli that I will start working at now. Don't get me wrong, I work my ass off when I'm working, but it seems that the business world that I've been a part of is all about "It's not what you know, it's who you know." I'm also very grateful that I've obtained these jobs and I seem to be at the right place at the right time.

I've always had the careless mindset that I will get a job with little trouble (before any of the connections listed above have come arise). It's kind of the luck I attract when everyone around me is talking about their bad beats and here I am with AA on the button. I certainly have had my fucking share of bad beats, but I am not one to dwell on my shit, which I think works in my favor in a spiritual way. I sway where the wind blows me. When I was little, I led my soccer team in scoring while my dad was the assistant coach. He told me (and it was true) that I just got garbage goals. I somehow ended up exactly where the ball was going to be. I never had the skillz, the speed, but I had the crazy skillz for opportunity

Poker works the same way for most scenarios, but opposite when I play large MTT's. I will be in my flow for around two hours, but immediately when I start to think about the payouts, my game detiorates and my mind gets hazy. This has obvious effects on my game, but also completely changes my mental strategy of swaying where the wind blows me. Instead, I am constantly on guard and concerned about my hand rather than other peoples. I think this mindset has my friends plagued with the need to find a summer job. I'm sure there's a logical explanation to everything, but fuck it, this metaphor I'm crafting at 1am is workin'.

Anyway, I'm kinda stopping on the whole MTT's for awhile and just focus on cash since that's where my big-time success is. I'm gonna try to only limit my play to off days because I know that I will just steam-tilt my br away if I play after work. Plus, I my aggro-exploiting self when I my mind is thinking efficiently (John Madden comment). Hope everybody has a good weekend!