What's up everyone? It's been awhile. Too long in fact. Let's see... I've been finishing up on school , which I can say that I'm finally done for the semester. I have I think one semester left. I feel like I've been in school forever, but I kept changing majors, adding classes, and all that fun stuff. Now I'm out for summer though, and I couldn't be happier. I feel like I have a chance to breath again, something that I haven't been able to say in a long time. Taking 18 credits really does it's work on you.

Going from there, I've been busy, dealing with a few personal issues, making a few life moves, and really just focusing on me. Everything has went well, and I'm happy to say that I can donate more time to CardRunners now and become more involved in the community. It's something that I'm really looking forward too. On an aside, my summer looks like it'll most likely be CardRunners related. I applied for a summer internship, but it's not going to work on this summer for me. I have been offered it in the Fall, which I might take them up on. For now, it'll have to wait.

So where does that leave me? Well, I have a lot of stuff planned this summer as far as trips go. I'll be travelling with my family some, some friends some, and probably make a trip or two for CardRunners, depending on their summer plans. I also have a TON of weddings to attend. Overall, it'll be travelling, a lot of CardRunners work, and poker. I'm hoping to make it out to Vegas to play in a few small events, and I'm working on qualifying for the ME online. Hopefully that'll go well.

As far as poker goes, I've been playing really well. I've played a ton on Bodog in the last two months and I've been crushing the 1/2nl games there. Seems like they play super soft and playing ABC wins you a ton of money. As a whole, it's been going very well. I've also had some deep runs in tourney's and I'm hoping to work on my tourney game more to prepare for the WSOP. I'll also likely go play the Borgata poker series coming up and will probably sell some pieces of myself if anyone is interested. I feel great about my game right now all around. I feel my tourney game is making huge strides and is as good as ever. My cash game I've been opening up to a lot of new concepts and thinking deeper. My PLO game is always improving and I can thank Stinger for that. Everyone should check out his latest series, it's gold.

I managed to play some HU the other day vs Harrydebeng, who is a HSNL player. He had a SSNL challenge with a friend of his so I got the chance to play him. He's a really cool guy and it was fun to play him. I feel like I may have outplayed him in some spots and I beleive that I def adapted better to the game flow than he did. Overall, I think he ended up a buyin or so vs me in the two sessions we played. He def ran hot vs me and coolered me in 3 huge pots, which was essentially where all his profits came from. Overall, he was fun to play and he respected my game. He's going to shoot me a PM with a review and some pointers that might help me. I apprecaite that as I'm working to soak up as much info as possible to continue learning.

As a side side note, Eminem's newest album "Relapse" leaked today. I'll say that the first three singles were sub bar at best and I didn't have high hopes. Well, after listening to this, WOW. This CD is instant classic. He brings back the Slim Shady LP vibe and really dropped his dumb voices and all that. I'll def buy this album and support Em and Aftermath. He def takes back the throne of hip hop with this CD. If anyone is interested in it, shoot me a PM.

Until next time, best of luck at the tables, but more importantly, enjoy life!

Cheers,
Trevor

Thanks to Mr. Mike Wong aka FishingMonk saying my last blog entry was emo, I decided I'd wait until I'm in a good mood to post my next entry. I guess looking back, it was kind of emo, but I was upset about a lot of reoccuring things. Overall though, life has been good. This past week I had off for Spring Break and I can gladly say that I'm happy with how it went. I didn't travel anywhere per say, but I managed to accomplish a lot of little things and made progress on things that will help me in the near future. So what's up?

I'll start off with some basketball talk. How I love the Syracuse Orange. I haven't been this excited about a Syracuse team since the 2003 National Championship team with Melo and McNamara. They had a lot of holes in their team, but they played great 2-3 D , which won them the championship essentially. This years team is just as deep, if not deeper. They have Flynn and Devendorf in the backcourt with a solid frontcourt. Their 2-3 D is as good as I've ever seen it. If they can keep it up, they can go super deep this year. After watching the Big East tournament, I'm super excited with how they're playing and their chances. The 6 OT game got me pumped up.

With that said, I absolutely can't wait for the NCAA tourrney. It's by far my favorite time of the year. I don't sports bet much, but I do like to bet when the conference games come on and the tourney. So far this season, I've followed some good betters and made a few good picks myself and had a really solid start so far. If you'd like me to post my picks for the tourney games, let me know in the comments and I'll do so. I think I'm 14-3 coming into the tourney. I also am pretty excited because I managed to get some amazing tickets to the 2nd round of the NCAA tourney on Saturday at Philly. It'll be for two game (likely Uconn vs Baylor and UCLA vs Villanova). The event has been sold out for months, so I'm happy I have some connections. It's something I've always wanted to do and you could say it's on my "Bucket List".

Next, I want to say that Ive been busy working on Internship stuff. I'll start by saying that I took an unconventional route in college. I've transffered twice now, stunting my graduation time each time. I really don't care much , as I actually do love college and enjoy learning. It sucks to see all my peers graduating, but 90% of them do nothing after graduation anyways and I have a strong sense of what I'm doing afterwards. That does lead me to the point of this. I have a cool opportunity for an internship at the White House working in the Office of Maangement and Administration. I'm on the last phase of the process for this application and I hope that I can pull it off. I have an edge as the person who recommended me has a strong connection with the program and acceptance. Overall, it'll take up most of my summer during the day, but the price of having that on my resume is about as good as anything you can have. Hopefully I'll know mid April if I get accepted.

I guess lastly I'll talk a little bit about poker. As I said , I always love March. This month so far, I'm up a substatial amount for the amount I've played. I'm hoping it can continue and I'll be happy with the results. I've kind of took a break from PLO for the time being, as it's very frustrating getting it in good and getting beat. For an ego like mine, it's thought to constatnly get your money in as a huge favorite, only to lose. It really beats you down emotionally. This has however helped my NL game. Everything just seems to click lately and when that happens, it's dangerous.

Overall, life is good and I have a lot ot be thankful for. I don't have any real complaints as of now. I'm just hoping to enjoy the rest of this nice weather out and really just keep motivated while I work on wrapping things up. It's a huge burn out at times, but when results are close, you find extra motivation. So there it is. Happy Go Lucky.

What can I say? I'm amazed. That is all.

What's up? I feel like I'm talking to myself when I type that but oh well. I'm happy to say that I'm finally on "Spring Break". Feels weird to say. My schedule is so damn busy with school that it seems weird it's here already. I'm not going anywhere fancy per say, such as beach or anything, but I have a lot of cool things planned and some travels this week. I also will be working on finishing up some projects that I've been working on for awhile that I'm pretty excited about.

Lets see. What's new? Well last week I had a pretty easy week at school. I didn't really do much as everything was wrapping up for break. It was pretty cool though to have a less stressful week than normal. I'll lead this into a pretty big rant that I have. This also really grinds my gears. I made plans to go to the city and check out the acquarium with a friend. We planned it for a week and I constanly reminded her leading up to it. For whatever reason, she's ditched me in the past on a few occasions. I know what your all thinking. Nobody ditches TrevRob. That is 100% correct. For whatever reason though, it's happened a few times and I was too dumb to see these things. Being the nice guy that I am, I figured maybe, just maybe, she'll pull through this time.

I should just end tihs blog here. That's how disappoint it is. Anyways, she went out on Friday night with someone else, whom I knew would talk her into not going and she'd back out. Sure enough, after placing a bet with my friend she'd back out, she sent the text backing out. I wouldn't give two shits less, but I already made tons of plans, paid for things, and planned around it. Caroline has warned me of this numerous times and I'm learning. Don't worry Caroline, I hear ya and I forever trust you.

Anyways, without letting the step child ruin the family dinner, I'll get back to the joyous part. I ended up talking with my ex gf that Friday night and she said she'd love to go. We ended up heading to Baltimore where we went to ESPN Zone so I could drink and watch the Pitt/UConn game, then headed to a bar, then acquarium, then went to dinner. I got pretty drunk but it was an awesome day out and I ended up having a blast and a lot more fun than I expected.

Sunday I had a big cookout/keg party for the UNC /DUKE game. It was a super nice day out and we drank, played vollyball, cooked out, and just had a blast. It was a pretty drunken steady day and was a great way to celebrate the super nice weather out we've been lucky enough to have the last week. I'm hoping it can stay this nice out for the rest of the week.

On the poker front, things have been up and down. I've played a decent amount the last few days. I started off pretty hot, then had a bad day, then regrouped a little, only to fall back. I'm still up on the month and hoping I can grind something togather. I try not to let it consume my life, so I just try to play 4 tables and really focus now when I play , playing short sessions.

Now on to the main thing that grinds my gears. I had 10 sucspicious charges on my bank statement for very large sums. I contacted the bank, filled out fraud paperwork, closed the account, only to have them contact me a week later saying they can't do anything about it because blah blah blah they suck. So now, I'm out a decent amount of money for something that was there fault. Guess that means I'll be pulling all my money from my savings account there and moving itsomewhere else. So along with people making plans and backing out, banks are my number one gear grinder.

Sorry if this is whinny, bitchy, or any other annoying adjective you want to use. I'm tilted.

Hey Guys/Gals. It's been awhile since my last post. I try to post on every Monday, but I haven't been able to keep up with that lately. A lot has happened since my last entry. First, I guess I'll start off my staying that I wrecked my car. I slid on ice on the way to class and slid of the road and hit a tree. I don't care to remember it or talk about it much, but I'll just say that I've insanely luck to be alive. I managed my way out unarmed except for a concussion. Regardless, I'm pretty thankful for life and I've always counted my blessings, and this is just a continued reason to do so.

I'm also pretty pumped up for March. There are so many things that I love about March. For starters, there is Spring Break. My SP starts next week and while I don't have many formal plans, I do plan to hang out with a few friends, hit up some sight seeing, and just relax while catching up on some things. I feel like I haven't had much chance to breathe lately with my hectic school schedule (18 credits) and CR stuff. I'm pushing to get my classes in so that I can get done and move onto grad school. I may be adding an online course that stars after spring break, which will move me up to 21 credits, which is 7 classes, and an insane workload. Due this this schedule, I haven't been nearly as active with CR as I have been in the past, but they're cool guys and understand and everyone has been jumping in and helping me out along the way. I can't wait for this to be over so that I can devote more time back into CR.

The second thing I'm pumped for is March Madness. Nothing beats college hoops and this time of year. Everyone loves their office bracket pools and I love picking the sleepers. My two college teams are Syracuse and Miami University. Both struggle and should slip into the tourney. I think if Miami slips in, they can make some noise. Syracuse is always just hit or miss.

March is also my moms birthday and the birthday of my first child from Haiti I sponsored. Their birthday's both land on the same day, which is pretty neat. For Capricito, being in Haiti means I had to send out his present around Christmas time just to make sure it reaches him in time, as they take up to 3 months due to a poor mail system in 3rd world countries. As for my mom, I'm not sure what I'll get her yet, but if anyone has any ideas, drop me a PM.

Lastly, March is always a HUGE poker month for me. For the last 3 years, I've had my best 3 months in March. I'm not sure what it is, but I always run well, have a tourney score, and focus well. I'm really hoping this continues because I need to break out of a "slump". I've been playing a lot on Stars and Cake Poker. Due to a nice incentive from Full Tilt, which I'm not sure I can talk about yet (?), I decided to start playing again on FTP. I've always liked FTP best, but it became full of regulars and I've ran pretty nasty on FTP for awhile now. I think I'll probably use March to grind up a roll on FTP by playing SSNL and try to get in maybe 50k hands, as I'll have a ton of time to play during Spring Break. I also have a vision of having a tourney score, so hopefully I can update a blog this month discussing that.

Sorry for the short update, but I felt like I should at least post something. I should also mention that last night I was shipping $5 to random rail birds at the 500/1k tables. It's pretty interesting what broke railbirds will do for $5. They always say they'll send it right back , but who are we kidding lol. I sent to a few who promised to sign up for CR at TFPT and I guess if CR gets a few sign ups through that, it's worth the $5 a pop.

Until next time, best of luck at the tables.

I'm back with the Monday blues. Basically, I woke up this morning pretty pumped knowing that McDonalds' Shamrock Shakes are back. I go into super-fat-kid mode when these hit the market every Feb/March. I estimate that I drink about 40 during this time. Only the shakes though, the rest of the diet I can keep clean/solid. So, I'll start the counter awhile:

Shamrock Shake Counter Total : 1

I'm also pretty pumped that my O.J. Mayo jersey arrived . I'm a huge Memphis Grizzlies fan and they're merchandise is nonexistent around my neck-of-the-woods. I actually wanted this jersey for Christmas, but no dice there. I pulled the plug and ordered the authentic one for myself. I guess I'll look cool wearing a jersey that says "Mayo" on the back, even though I hate everything mayo related. Except for O.J., of course. I guess it beats wearing a "Rudy Gay" jersey and having "Gay" on the back of your jersey. I wonder how many of his jerseys they actually sell? I bet it's very low for a premier player.

I've never made it to a Grizzlies game before, but that'll end on Wednesday. Grizzlies are playing the Sixers and I will be in attendance. I have a season ticket package with the Sixers where I choose 10 games to go to, or something like that. They've been cool and let me forfeit some games for seat upgrades, more tickets to another game, etc. I managed to pull 2 court-side seat tickets for this game. I wanted 4-6 so that I could take some friends and allow them to enjoy it with me, but the Sixers box office was being stingy. However, the fact that the Sixers are the worst selling team in the league and they're playing the Grizzlies, I'm guessing the box office realized it wasn't the best game to hold out on. They called me up yesterday (yes, on a Sunday) and offered me 4 front row seats for the price of my 2 court side seats. I guess they're trying to fill the seats or something. I gladly accepted and I'm taking 3 of my good friends. It should be a blast and I'll get to show my Grizzly pride with the best Mayo on the planet.

I've also been actively looking into real estate and purchasing a house. I've looked at a few places, had one big offer rejected (was on a golf course), and became unmotivated after that. I was informed that Collegeville, PA was laying off around 30,000 jobs, which means the real estate market will be slumming in that area. $500-700k houses are going as low as $250k, which is hard to turn down. It's a fairly nice area and I'm pretty excited to be touring 2 houses on Wednesday while in Philly. I toured a house very close to that area around Christmas, but decided not to make an offer on it. I felt like waiting would be the better option at the time. I'm hoping it goes well this time around, and I'm looking forward to making more investments.

It's looking like a pretty busy week, and it will be topped off with the lovely Valentine's Day. This could be the most overrated holiday ever. I always love watching guys do cheesy things like buy girls flowers even though they had a falling out with them a month before. And then they get back together for another month, only for things to go south- back to where they were before the holiday. The girls' emotions get so blurred and fired up when they receive those flowers. They think the guy is perfect and give them another chance. And I sit on the rocking chair laughing as I watch it all unfold. Actually, I don't do that, but you get the point. It's always pretty cool to watch these things happen and you can always predict those to whom it will happen. My predictions are in and I'm throwing a pretty strong life record on my predictions. IM me for my predictions.

I keep a close guard though. I also don't find "Valentines". I keep it real and my mom is my valentine every year. I got some cool things planned this year for her, so I'm excited about that. It's tough always topping the previous year. It's bigger and bigger. Hopefully, this year will be unique and very original. Maybe I'll update on that after Valentines Day. I would tell you now, but my mom is my number 1 blog reader, so I'd give the secret away. Sorry mom!

I think I forgot to mention this, but I was walking on campus wearing a CR hoodie and a guy approached me. Right away he said, "You a member?" I said yeah. He next said, "TrevRob?". I asked how he knew and he said he's been a member and knew I went to school with him and saw my pic before in the forums (I can only imagine). It was pretty cool and I got his name, but I forget his CR name. He's supposed to shoot me an email and maybe we'll grab some lunch. If anyone else is at PSU, shoot me a message and we can grab some lunch sometime.

I also hope everyone saw the Grammy's last night. If not for the movies or music or whatever the hell they honor people for at the Grammy's, you had to see Carrie Underwood. She was stunning as always, and I'm proud to say that she's my future wife candidate.

Lastly, I got invited to a half court shooting contest held by my high school to raise money for charity. I'm pretty sure that I'm hands-down favorite to win this. Half court is my range and is like a standard jump shot for me. Hopefully I get a trophy to show off and then I can post pics in this blog after they hand it to me.


Until next time, tell the ladies they're pretty while you can.

TrevRob

Every so often, I'm at war with myself. I battle myself and beat myself up inside thinking of different scenarios and thinking outside of the box. Most times, it doesn't really affect me, but sometimes it also eats me alive inside. I don't really talk to many people about these issues, as most times they're things I have to figure out for myself and it's pointless dumping it onto other people since it's my business really. For some reason, I have maybe three people I talk to outside of my family regarding these issues. A lot of it is simple stuff that I struggle with such as do I want to play poker, what I want to do in life, or struggles with not doing something to help the most people possible. I truly believe a lot of it comes from me not wanting to take "x" route in life. I really just want to be happy and morally content, which I think 95% of people in life are not.

Poker was handed to me on a platter from a large scale perspective. I was fortunate enough to stumble upon it and make easy money. However, this generally means others stumbled upon it and lost money, possible even more than they can handle from a financial point of view. I'm sure some people even lost so much that they lost their families, loved ones, and sometimes themselves from a mental stand point. So what justifies myself to this dirty money? Essentially, I'm stealing from others. The case old point could be made that "they were gambling ,etc". Sure. However there is also a fine line where some people simply have a problem and can't quit or can't stop. We are taking advantage of these people who can't control themselves and only making their issues worse. At the end of the day, we are all just stealing money from people and doing nothing for society.

That scenario has been running through my mind dating back to November last year. I remember talking about it to a friend of mine, and she completely understood me, but didn't know what to tell me. It's something I had to figure out for myself. Since then, I haven't played much poker at all. I cut back probably 85% and really just started exploring things that made me happy and gave me a clean conscious at night. This was all fine and dandy until I realized that I'm a business/marketing major. The whole point of a business is to manipulate the public to buy your product even if it's not the best. Marketing firms try to put out the best campaign to convince the public in their direction. Essentially, businesses are competing against one another to steal the consumers money the fastest. Where is the line drawn?

When I look at my career path, I just don't see anything in my relative field now that'll make me happy at the end of the day. After every business class I have, I leave wondering "what am I doing in this major?". I'm giving nothing back to society at the end of the day. I really feel like I need to become a teacher or do something that'll help people and allow myself to give back and have a sense of satisfaction at the end of the day. As is, I'm not leading that life and it's making me more and more miserable every day. Am I in this field because I'm competitive and need to make it to the top and need the challenge? Why can't I just become a teacher, be happy making "x" amount of dollars per year and having a sense of satisfaction at the end of the day that I did something to help others and to give back ?

Are successful people really happy people? A greed filled person simply outs themself to morals. It's a selfless act by one trying to fulfill needs without looking at those of others. Can you really be highly successful in life from a financial point of view by giving back to others without being a braniac? Basically, can the average Joe make decent money by doing something that gives back? Every field that I see financial security in lacks morals. Business steals from customers, Lawyers are always lying, etc. When I look at people who have jobs which are probably content at days end, they make nothing. Teachers, librarians, counslers, etc. Is there an inverse relationship to this pattern? I say a non braniac because a doctor helps people, however everyone is not smart enough to be a doctor. Are financially successful people successful because they put morals and ethics out the window?

Over the last few months, I've realized that it's not the money that drive me to do anything. I'm very active in charities and giving back to the community, as I feel that's the only way to keep me sane now. Maybe it's just my mentality. I'd prefer to see everyone succeed. Manipulating money out of people from using bet sizing, reads, and similar tactics at the poker table just doesn't appeal to me much anymore. If I did become a teacher though, even if I had that sense of satisfaction such as I gave back at the end of the day, would I still feel this way when playing poker? Would I open up 1 table, play for fun, and still feel this same way that I do now about taking peoples money that I don't know? What's the breaking point? When do you draw the line? Is my perception a reality?

Another day, another entry, and still no editing to this. I've been really lazy with writing things up and having a friend edit them for me. I did have a interesting one that was edited, but I lost it in my email somewhere. Maybe next time. I did have a discussion with my friend Jay who said that my blog makes me sound like a mad man and that I lack any sort of poker content for being a "poker blog". This is quite true, although i don't think I sound like a mad man, maybe just ramble a lot. And honestly, rambling is probably what I do best.

I guess I'll start this off by saying the last week or so has been interesting. I managed to get a lot done and I've been continuing working on accomplishing some goals. I did attend a meeting for professional etiquette training. It was interesting to say the least and I learned a few things along the way. Along with that, I managed to go skiing twice, with the last time resulting in me hurting my wrist. I guess I'll deal though. Also, I managed to catch up with some friends on a quadrooooople date to go to the movies and dinner. It's always nice catching up with your real close group of friends whom you don't get to see that often. There have been various other things that I can't think of right this moment, but I've been productive and excelling.

Since I've cut alcohol out of my daily routine, things have sort of fallen into place. I've felt refreshed and am able to put things into a clearer perspective. I've cut out a few people whom I used to talk to/hang out with that I felt only caused drama/stress. It's good eliminating that from a lifestyle and it really allows you to stay focused and motivated. I finalyl don't feel like I'm wasting away days and wasting away nights just drinking, waking up feeling like shit, and only having a few funny stories to tell that last maybe a day at best. End rant.

Since this blog has no rhythm to it, I'll explain the title of this. "Outliers". This is actually the title of Malcolm Gladwell's newest book. "The Story of success" as it's also known as. If your not familiar with Malcolm, he's written "Blink" and "The Tipping Point". He brings a very well thought out, studied approach to his material and it's always great for opening your eyes. This book was no exception. It recaps a lot of skills that it takes to be succsesful and how studies back those up. It's nothing ground breaking , but it's unique and worth a read if you enjoy learning and opening your eyes to new perspectives.

From there, I guess I'll move onto something else I wanted to cover. All this week, I'm participating in "The Water Project". Basically , all week, I'm drinking nothing but water. Any money that I would have spent on anything else, I am donating to this project (www.thewaterproject.com).

- $10 = 1 person's access to water
- $50 = 1 families water needs
- $500 = repair a well
-$3,500 = dig a new well

If you put that into perspective, it's so little that we can do that will go a long way for people. I'm not sure how much I drink or would spend on drinks since I mostly drink water as is, but I'm assuming I'll try to make it $50, and will eventually just donate the $500 regardless to help repair a well. It's pretty neat stuff and I encourage anyone who can to help out. Even $10 goes a long way. Donate those 3 mixed drinks at the bar and help someone who needs it.

Lastly, I guess I'll talk about poker. People get on me because while they enjoy my blog, they'd like to see some hands or discussion. Frankly, I have a small group whom I even discuss poker with, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to share some thoughts. I'll start off by saying that I haven't played a single hand of poker yet in 2009. This may be hard to believe, but it's true. Instead, I've spent this time studying the game of PLO (Pot Limit Omaha). I've put every ounce of energy that I have into learning this game and I know I'll reap the rewards eventually. It's a new game , and only few has really mastered it (if anyone). While most have went out on the weekends and at nights, I've been staying in and working on learning this (nerdy, I know). I will be start playing very soon, and maybe I'll give some updates along the way. However, I have no doubt that I'll be very successful with all the hard work and energy I've put into learning it. It's funny, because I actually am working harder at it then I did with No Limit Holdem when I started it, and I worked hard back then. I will even go as far as saying that I'm more comfortable in my PLO game than No Limit Holdem game, which is very surprising.

With that said, I guess I'll make some revelevant paragraph related to poker strategy/content. While I was home this weekend, I was talking wtih my mom and she was asking me how things were going learning this game. She's very supportive and she understands the variance and swings involved, and is basically just ultra cool mom in that sense. We got to talking when she surprised me with her knowledge. She said "well, if you have 4 cards to start, you can pretend you have hands that opponents might act like they have". I was pretty shocked, but that is the concept of "blockers" in PLO. Many people don't fully understand this concept though and may apply blockers in the wrong situations. Here is an example:

Hand 1: You have a hand like AJJ5 and defend from the big blind vs a cut off open.
Flop comes down AQ6 raindbow and you check call a bet from the CO.

Turn comes comes Th putting 2 hearts out. You check raise.

The problem with this hand is that your c/r as a bluff here because you have 2 jacks (making it unlikely that he has KJ for the straight), however there are so many other hands in his range that he can call or shove over you with. I think bluffing in this spot may be misapplied and a mistake by most. Regardless of if you have the straight or not, they have enough equity to call you going to the river , ultimately making the play +EV .


Hand 2: You hold JJ77 and open raise in the cutoff. Everyone folds to the big blind who is tight and 3 bets you. You call.

Flop comes 862 rainbow. Let's assume were both deep here and is reason we made the preflop call. On the flop, the big blind quickly checks and we elect to check behind.

Turn brings a 5 and the big blind elects to check as well. Here, we can and need to bet. We don't have a hand, but this is the perfect spot to represent a hand, knowing we have 2 7s in our hand. It's very unlikely that he's going to have any hand even remoetely strong enough to call to see a river. If he does make the call, we can bluff most rivers profitalbly as were representing the straight and it's ultra unlikely he has it, meaning he will have a very hard time calling most rivers.

So in a nutshell, I hope this makes sense and pleases those who wanted some poker content. Lastly, the most misunderstood concept is barrelling blockers. Most poeple like to barrel (bluff) here and there to win small pots, however the point of barrell bluffing with blockers is to build a big pot to take it away on future streets, increasing the amount of mistakes your opponents are making, which in turn means bigger and more $$$ for you.

Basically, if you don't feel like reading that, just know Mamma Robinson is right when she says "you can pretend you have hands that your opponent is acting like he has", mainly because we hold the cards he needs in our hand. Thanks Mom.


Yours Truly,
TrevRob

So yes, it's true. I'm back in the virtual world of putting my thoughts to paper or the paper to my words or whatever other silly way you'd like to word it. I've had a lot of friends and random people send me messages asking why I quit blogging and if I had any plans to start blogging again. Frankly, why I quit is a story for anther day and I don't really have time to divulge into that right now, or maybe possible ever for that reason, because the fact is : I'm pretty lazy x amount of the time, where x represents a very high variable of a percent figure. I've had a lot going on and some real highs as of lately (figuratively and literally) and some lows. I'm not really sure what I'll cover in my blogs, but I hope it's entertaining, thought provoking, and maybe pissing a person or two off along the way would be a cool bonus. I should also mention, the deciding factor to start blogging again was when Max , known to the virtual world as "RodeoBlue" told me that he'd make my blog his homepage when it returned.

To catch some people up, I should start by saying last year was very interesting. It was the first year of poker that I dealt with the reality of not always winning at will, facing downswings, tilting, and really not reaching some goals, which for me is insanely hard to deal with. Last year started off insanely hot for me, probably making me one of the biggest winners on Full Tilt Poker at SSNL Heads Up and I pulled a ridiculous amount of money from those games given the stakes. From then until summer, things drastically cooled off, I was unfocused playing poker and I got distracted. While in Vegas, I was on what started as one of my biggest downswings/losing periods I've ever had. While frustrating, I managed cop with it and pulled through summer. After Vegas, I went on a heater (Insane run of winning at will for all you non poker fans out there) of a lifetime where I was trying to lose and I couldn't. When this happens, a few things take effect:

1. You gain a false sense of confidence.

2. You become irresponsible.

3. You are doomed for a downswing.

Well, I can't sit here and say none of the 3 happened to me, because I'm sure they did. I think I vividly remember the day things started to turn for the worst. I took a loss in the stock market, I got destroyed online, and I felt like I didn't care about poker. I was insanely uncertain what I wanted out of it, and my results reflected it. This started what is still today as my biggest downswing. On Thanksgiving Eve, I went on what is the biggest losing day of my poker career and financial career for amount of money I lost. I played some bigger games than I should have, was tilting, and had a lot going on. Needless to say, to this day my confidence playing poker is still not 100%. From then, up until today, I've been downswinging insanely hard, with the occasional big winning day in between a few losing days, which add up more than the big winning day. I've been losing money faster than I care to count. However this has been a reality and I've always dealt with it accordingly. So now that rambling is out of the way and that brings everyone up to speed, to today. That's probably all that I'll discuss on the poker front of things in this blog.

As far as life is concerned, it's been up and down as well, though it's been hectic as of lately. I ended up scheduling classes at the wrong campus (don't ask) and I'll likely have to get that arranged next week and go back to the correct one, or I'll continue to stay at the one I'm at now and rent an apartment. I've been doing some apartment searching and I really enjoy it here. I've been staying with a friend for now, and the new experience is something that benefits me and I really believe it'll help me keep focused on things. The only downfall is that I have a new puppy that I've been waiting to pick up , but that might have to be put on hold if I find an apartment. That's about as far as I'll dive into my personal life for now.

As far as 2009 goes, it's extremely goal oriented for me and I'm pretty excited about it. I've already worked insanely hard everyday this year so far to reach my goals and it's the motivation I'll need to continue to have to reach the goals. I do have a financial figure set that I'd like to reach as far as poker is concerned, but that's actually the least important goal on my list of 13. I do believe that I've grown tired of poker and I'm really looking to either step away or remotivate myself in some way and really figure out what I want out of it. I will be taking off poker until the end of February and focusing on school and other more important goals. At that time, I'll figure out what I want to do with it. I think my most likely option would be to focus on Pot Limit Omaha and focusing on becoming the best player that I can at that. I always strive to be the best, and without a doubt with being good friends with Brian Hastings (Best PLO player in the world) and Brian Townsend, there is simply no reason that I shouldn't have great success with this. The main thing is making sure I'm motivated when that time comes, otherwise it's not fair to myself nor those guys for helping me when their time is worth thousands an hour. While 2008 was a very swingy year for me, it was a very successful year financially from poker, CardRunners, and investments. While I hope to keep the same up for 2009, it's going to focus a lot more on other aspects in life and finding things I really like to do and that make me happy. Hopefully you'll enjoy my next entry, which will be called "If money were no object" (Bill will like this one).

Love,

TrevRob