I wrapped up my finals this past Thursday and am now officially a college senior! I really worked my ass off this semester in school and I think the results will show. I don't have all my grades yet, but I got a B in my econometrics class, which is one of the hardest classes econ majors at Cornell have to take. I am very happy with this as my major GPA hasn't been all that great to this point. I am still planning on taking 3 more semesters, because I have 35 credits left and taking 18 and 17 credit semesters my senior year right after turning 21 doesn't sound all that fun. Instead I am going to just take 3 light semesters so I can really enjoy myself. This sounds like much more fun to me.

Right now I am trying to get myself back into the swing of things with poker. I played probably about 2 hours during finals week and not much at all since spring break really. I just didn't have much time with my focus more on school and my social life. Unfortunately, getting back to the grind hasn't really been that easy, because I seemingly lose every session I play. I think this is a combo of me being rusty and me being 'avatar cursed' on FTP (just kidding.....maybe). As an aside, I did recently get my avatar on FTP. It is pretty solid imo but the pic was taken 1.5 years ago so I don't look exactly the same, but it's better than most avatars and I'm happy with it. Anyway, I'm not gonna whine about running bad or anything, I know in the grand scheme of things I have nothing to complain about. Tax day made things less fun, but I'll deal with it. I do want to make one observation though. I have been playing a lot of 25/50 and railing some of the 300/600 and 500/1k PLO games. I could be wrong, but from what I've seen I think the 25/50 games are often tougher right now. Some of the regulars in the big games just make some very fundamentally flawed plays, particularly preflop. The good regs at 25/50 are just super solid and don't do this really. There are some worse regs at 25/50 who do, but in some lineups I really think 25/50 plays tougher. Unfortunately I don't have the roll to be playing 300/600 at the moment, so all the evidence I have is my armchair quarterback observation. I think it will be really interesting to see how some of the other 25/50 guys do in the big games if/when they take shots at them though.

On a brighter note, I am currently in vacation in Florida with my family for the week. We're staying at the beach for 4 nights then heading to Disney World for 3 (shoutout to Mickey Mouse's best friend, Joe "LL2" Ward!). It hasn't gone all smoothly - my dad separated his shoulder yesterday bodysurfing (he's pretty ok though), I made the brilliant decision to stay at the beach for three whole hours yesterday, which is not a very good idea given my naturally pale skin, and today set a record for the most rainfall Vero Beach has ever gotten. However, I am still enjoying myself. The beach time yesterday was very nice and relaxing. I picked up Shadow Divers to read on the plane rides and the beach. It is a novel about two men who discovered a German U-Boat from World War II 60 miles off the coast of New Jersey, completely against what all military records had stated. I am only about halfway through and don't want to provide any spoilers, but it is a very fascinating read and difficult to put down once I start. I picked it up because a few posters on 2p2 recommended it, and I am very happy I did so. I really need to start reading more. There's not much that beats a great book, imo. After the beach, I went to get a massage at the resort. Luckily my sunburn hadn't really set in yet and the massage was great.

Today, I went to see Star Trek with my dad since it was pouring out and I couldn't really go back in the sun anyway. This movie was really impressive imo, the storyline was pretty compelling and there were some great special effects. I hadn't really ever watched any older Star Trek stuff or sci-fi in general either. I'm not a fan of mindless action movies, but this was something more. Iron Man is a fair comparison, although the storyline isn't really similar or anything. Anyway, check it out if you're remotely interested in this kinda thing. Afterwards the whole family went to a seafood place and I had some really delicious yellowtail snapper. I'm probably just taking it easy for the rest of the night and definitely watching game 1 of the Lakers/Nuggets series. Since the Bulls were eliminated in their great first round series, I have jumped on the Nuggets bandwagon. I'm a huge fan of their bench, especially the Birdman. He just brings so much energy and I love the fact that he created his own nickname. What a baller. Their whole team is really fun to watch and I do think they beat the Lakers, probably in 6 games. I don't expect them to beat the Cavs but will be rooting for it to happen.

Tomorrow my sister and I are supposed to get some surfing lessons. That is contingent on both the weather and my sunburn cooperating though. I'd say it's pretty unlikely that I end up going, but I sure hope I do. I've always wanted to learn how to surf. If worse comes to worse I will have other opportunities though.

One last thing - I recently did a podcast with Nick Wealthall of "On the Rail," the UK's most popular poker podcast that he co-hosts with CR blogger Kara Scott. Nick is a great guy and a great interviewer and I think this turned out really well. I've had several friends who don't listen to many podcast interviews say that they really enjoyed it, so check it out if you get a chance. You can listen to it here.

That's all for now, good luck at the tables all!

Brian