The brief time I spent blogging on Cardrunners captured some pretty dramatic and challenging moments, which included a full blown nervous breakdown. The support I recieved from people who had dealt with similar experiences, or who simply wanted to offer encouragement was very helpful. Thanks for that. I don't plan on resuming my blog, but a number of these issues have more or less come to a close, so I thought I would share a quick update.

I've been in very good health for quite a while now, and that's a relief. I've even been meds free for a few months, so things are looking really good. Losing my health for a while there scared the pants off me, and I can't thank my family, friends, and fiance enough for their incredible support when it really counted.

I'm engaged! I proposed to Natalie a few weeks ago on Vancouver Island. She said, "SERIOUSLY?"... and then she said yes. I couldn't be happier about it. As a younger person I never imaged myself being in love, let alone married, but it's a pretty awesome thing to have happen.

Financially, things turned out pretty darn okay. I ended up losing a ballstastic amount of money, but I kept my shirt, and when the dust started to settle I had enough to pay off the mortgage on my townhouse (which I should have done a long time ago, but if you remember how things were pre-2008, well... leverage-leverage-leverage). I've got two last pieces of real estate that are set to close in about a month, and after that I won't have a penny of debt to my name. House withstanding, I won't own anything, either, but I'm pretty frickin fine with that.

I haven't played a lot of poker this year. It comes and goes.

So, what are some things I've learned? Lots. Here are some of the more important ones:

1) If you're angry or sad to the point that it bothers you (sometimes it's okay to be a little angry) eat something. If that doesn't work, sleep.

2) Having lots of money but being kind of useless doesn't give you great security. If you lose the money then you're just some useless guy, and nobody's going to pay you for that.

3) Being a decent person, however, will get you a lot of things from people. Those things might not be money, but they will probably be enough.

4) Nobody anywhere really gets what's going on. You probably already knew that, but just in case you were wondering if the bigger guys at the banks, the law firms, and the accounting offices knew what was going on with civil law or the economy, don't worry, they don't get it either.

5) In a bad situation it's easy to imagine how things will get worse, but just because you can't imagine how things might get better doesn't mean they won't. If you weren't omincient enough to see the bad stuff coming there's no reason to believe you'll see the good stuff coming either.

6) There are just some people who do truly suck, to an incredible extent. But the world's a big enough place that they can be more or less ignored.

7) Hitting things in your basement is okay. Don't hurt yourself.

8) Fire everyone who can't be bothered to return your calls within the week. Do you have a lawyer like that? Fire them tomorrow. I'm serious. What you need your lawyer to do is not special and it is not complicated. The only criteria that determine whether a lawyer is a good lawyer for 99% of people are 1) cost 2) are they sober? 3) can they return a phone call?

9) You can teach most people how to do most things. You can't teach character. Hold on to your good people.

10) Always make your lists an even ten.


Good luck!

Its been roughly a year since I started playing full time again. For the most part I've been playing ring and limit 6-max. I was pretty sick up until the New Year, but that's been going relatively well for quite a while now. After some sputters and starts from Jun-Dec I put together a really good Jan and Feb and felt quite confident about my edge in the games. After getting back from a trip to Vegas I had a non-stop 900BB downswing that really bummed me out and busted the stake I'd been playing out of at the time (I was managing my bankroll somewhat aggressively since I was playing out a stake). Once that blew over I won at a good clip for a while and was almost back up to my peak and since then I've gotten plowed with another fast and furious 900BB downswing which was capped off today when I played out my worst day ever losing nearly 300BB in 2400 hands. I've exported the hands from that session to megaupload and you can grab them from the link below the graph.

I've played through back to back tough months before where I've remained confident that I still have an edge. This sample of hands is so large, however, and so streaky that I have no real idea of where I stand in relation to the field. In terms of my analysis of what I see at the tables from those who have been doing well in the 10/20 and 15/30 games I certainly don't notice anything that I think might account for a great deal of edge that I'm failing to realize, and with a few exceptions I think I match up very favourably against the regulars at these stakes. I did have a stretch of about a month and a half where I was getting used to adding more tables to push through more volume where I definitely threw away bets that I wouldn't have otherwise, but I think it would be hard pressed to have that account for any more than 100 bets, if that. Given that some of my bankroll is frozen in FT and the recent downswing I'll be stepping down to 5/10 and 10/20 for a while to finish up some FPP rewards that I'm close to and then, if that has gone well, I'll start mixing 15/30 back in and take it from there.

Frustrated.





http://www.megaupload.com/?d=W1T7M7W1

Collecting questions for my August Poker Pro Canada column. If you've got a question about game theory, balance, or deception throw it in the comments and I'll answer it in the mag and send you a copy.

I'm doing a monthly column for Canadian Poker Pro called (I believe) "Coache's Corner" that answers questions about hold'em. If you'd like to submit one paste a reply below. It can be anything from general theory to a strategy question. If it's a strategy question please include some assumptions about what you think your opponent's range is so that I have something to work with (both LHE and NLHE are fine). Short questions are better than long ones. Include your name or poker alias. If your question makes it into the mag I'll send you a PM on CR for your address and mail you a copy.

Getting a little cheased off. Modified my graphics, set up Table Ninja, and tried my hand at 7-9 tabling 10/20 for a little while this month. Didn't go that great in my opinion, though it was cool to easily play 3-4k hands in a handful of hours. Going to buckle down and focus on beating down weak regulars again. Upside is that with the new technology I seem to be able to play about one more table than I used to with about the same amount of effort, so that's a bonus. Props to nutedawg for getting me thinking about how I interact with the poker tables and data and not just the game itself. Would be nice to have a few sets hold up.