I have fully conquered PLO, time to move on:

March was a good month for me. It was not my best month ever, but it felt really good. Besides running normal, I think there were some major factors that led to a pretty good month:

1. Joining a study group. This has really helped me stay focused on playing my best and I have learned some great stuff from the other players in the group. This type of thing is soooo helpful. It keeps your mind fresh and creative, helps plug leaks, and offers motivation to do well. Thanks to everyone in the group!

2. Playing less tables. I pretty much only played 6 tables of full ring this month, and I become uber-nittier at table selecting by the day. For me, a few good tables is the way to go. I've had decent success playing 8 tables, but I think I am way better when I cut it to 6. I'm so much more adept at picking up reads, timing tells, and whatnot when I play less tables. I also think I"m much less prone to tilt and spew when I play fewer games. Right now I'm not grinding for a living, so hourly rate doesn't matter a lot to me. I'm trying to get better and move up, so I'm most concerned with BB/100. Six is going to be just fine for a while.

3. Playing when I can play my A-game. I'm fairly busy with non-poker stuff (job, family, softball, strongman training, social life, ect), and I've found that my play suffers when I'm pressed for time. Trying to cram a poker session into an already busy day is not optimal. I've been doing a lot better with not forcing sessions when I'm busy or tired, and I've found that I'm way more satisfied with quality of play when I pick good times to get sessions in. Obviously it makes sense to only play when you can play your A-game, but having the self-awareness to actually do so is a lot harder than it sounds. Of course, this led to me not playing a ton of hands this month, but again, that's not real important to me right now. Quality over quantity.

March Graph:

I'm sure many of you were wondering what the title of this entry could be, lol. Nothing gross, really. So the internal flushing mechanism (or whatever the f it's called) in one of my toilets broke and needed replacing. Not a big deal. Got a new mechanism kit and set out to install it. Well hell if the old one was damn near impossible to remove! I spent a few hours removing it, then could not unscrew the last fitting. So I gave up for the day because I ran out of time to mess with it, and left it alone for a few days ( I was pretty busy).

Today my girlfriend took the tank to Home Depot, where they were able to remove the fitting that I could not get off. I didn't even ask how they did it, because if it was easy I might lose it. So I get the tank back, and it's ready for the install of the new flushing junk. Nice. I spend like 2 hours installing the new shit, which wasn't real hard, just a bit tedious, and it's ready to go. I turn on the water supply and WTF, the main valve shank has a crack in it and it's spewing water out of the top. Holy fucking sweet mother of jebus!! I wanted to take a sledge hammer to the whole toilet. Luckily one was not near by. Now I have to take all the newly installed crap out, take it back to the store, and install another one. I guess I'll be good at this crap when it's all said and done. Anyone need a toilet fixed? I will fix yours up, good as new, for $500/hr.

For the past 6 weeks or so I've been training for my first ever strongman competition. I was on the weight-lifting team in high school (like 10 years ago), but never really thought about trying one of these competitions until a few guys at my gym started doing it. It sounded like fun and a good challenge, so I decided to give one a try. I never really half-ass anything, so I trained pretty hard for it and it ended up being a pretty cool experience. I owe a lot to my training partners Rob and Patrick. We trained at Rob's house with all the stuff (logs, stones, tires, ect), and they both gave me a lot of tips and support.

I ended up getting 2nd out of 9 in the novice division, which I was pretty happy with. The guy who got 1st had about 40lbs on me and was pretty fast on everything. He had obviously trained very hard and deserved to win on that day, so my hat is off to him. Here are the events and how I did:

Log clean and press w/180lb log for reps in 60 sec: I got 7 reps on this. My goal was 8, which I kind of got, but I went too fast on the 1st rep and it didn't get counted. Doing the 1st rep twice killed some time and only allowed me to complete 7.

Axel dead-lift w/375lbs for reps in 60 sec: I completed 14 reps on this one. I just missed 15 on this, but time ran out just before I locked out the 15th. I was pretty damn happy with this one, as I had never lifted with a fat bar before and didn't know if I could hold it for many reps.

450lb yoke walk and 220lb tire drag for 50' each: Finished in about 29 seconds, which was over 10 sec faster than everyone but the guy who beat me (by 1 sec).

225lb atlas stone over 50" bar for reps in 60 sec: I was good for 6 reps on this. The video below only shows 5 because it picks up on the 2nd rep. I really should have done 7 or 8 on this one, but I let the tightness in my legs/back get to me and went slower than I am capable.

Stone/keg carry medley w/215lb keg and 225lb stone for 75' each: They changed this one at the last minute from 50' to 75', which wasn't a big deal. Got this one in 32 sec despite dropping the keg half way. I was pretty pissed about dropping the keg, but I still easily got the 2nd best time in this event.

Here's a vid of the events I got good footage of: www.youtube.com/watch

I'll probably try another competition as an open lightweight in a few months.

Good times

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: Villain 1 ($58.30)
Seat 2: Villain 2 ($102.15)
Seat 3: Villain 3 ($85.85)
Seat 4: Villain 4 ($269.65) -
Seat 5: Villain 5 ($210.50) -
Seat 6: Villain 6 ($210) -
Seat 7: Hero ($270.40)
Seat 8: Villain 7 ($100) Sitting Out
Seat 9: Villain 8 ($161.45)


PRE-FLOP:

Villain 5 posts small blind $0.50
Villain 6 posts BIG blind $1
Dealt To: Hero


RAISE Hero ($3.50)
FOLD Villain 8
FOLD Villain 1
FOLD Villain 2
CALL Villain 3 ($3.50)
RAISE Villain 4 ($9)
FOLD Villain 5
FOLD Villain 6
RAISE Hero ($48)
FOLD Villain 3
RAISE Villain 4 ($269.65)
CALL Hero ($221.65)


FLOP:

Pot: $544.3




TURN:

Pot: $544.3




RIVER:

Pot: $544.3




SHOWDOWN:
Villain 4:

Hero:


Villain 4 collected $541.3 from main pot with a flush, Ace high

Mojo is good, whatever your definition. It's funny in Austin Powers, it's a tasty marinade, and it was a great HD cable channel that is now gone. I also once seemed to have a good amount of mojo in my poker game, which lately has seemed to slip away a bit. Well, I can't bring back the cable channel, but I can bring back my poker mojo.
I'm starting by joining a new FR study group, which I'm very excited about. I used to get together with other players quite a bit and go over hands, do sweat sessions, and whatnot. Holla to Verneer's old coaching group! I haven't done this type of thing in a while, and my game has definitely slipped. Getting back into a study group is going to be great for all of us involved. Hi Sawcruhteez, Dustydwn, WordHappy, Pataxxe, and Appleseed! It seems like a great group, and I'm sure we'll all be ballin' outa control in no time, lol.

Below is my HM graph for my last 150Kish hands at FR NL. All my older hands are on PT2. It's 95% 100nl with a little 200nl, 50nl, and 25nl sprinkled about. I know it doesn't look terrible, but my last 100K hands or so have been teh suck. Also, I fully acknowledge that not doing as well as I could is completely my fault. I am very capable of a 5+BB/100 WR, and I am going to get back to playing that well. The future is always bright.

January ended up being ok. I'm not entirely happy with my play (I guess I never am), but I did fine considering I was very busy with my real job. January is a pretty huge month in the fitness industry and this year, despite the poor economy, was no exception. I've been able to get my avg hourly rate (at the gym) up over $4/hr since I started last Sept. That makes me pretty happy, especially since my 1-year raise at my last job was $0.75/hr. I also have my self set up nicely with clients for at least the next 2 months. I'm considering taking an entire month off sometime mid-year. Maybe June.

My poker totals for Jan were about $1375. Knowing I would be busy at work, I was going to be pleased with anything close to $1K. Of course I still could have done a lot better. My main issue is tilting and spewing. My technical game is mostly sound, so I have the potential to do very well if I could just keep from spewing like 10 buy-ins/month. The whole not looking at the bankroll and monthly results seemed to help a lot, and I will continue to pay minimal attention to results. It was also pretty cool to check out my results/bankroll after not looking for a few weeks.

I'll be dabbling in the 200nl games some this month, which I think will be good for me. I tend to concentrate a lot harder when playing up a level, and I think I'm much less likely to spew if I hit a bad run. I'm a bit over-rolled for 100nl, and I think sometimes I just blow a few buy-ins because it doesn't hurt very much. I think I do a little better when losing a buy-in stings a bit. I certainly didn't make it into any 400nl games last year, but I am 100% confident that I will make it there in '09. That's all for now.

I would give almost anything to never spew again. F-you donks who 2-outed me today!

I guess one day I will figure it all out, and not spew a stack after taking a few bad beats. Tomorrow is another day.

I few weeks ago I noticed that I have been way too results-oriented lately. Well, actually, I've probably always been way too results-oriented, but I feel like I've recently regressed a bit. I thought about it for a bit and decided that I seem to play my best poker when I am not at all worried about or keeping constant track of results. This led me to decide that I will refrain from looking at my bankroll until the end of the month, and just focus on playing solid poker. I actually started this a few weeks ago, and it seemed to help, so I will continue it until the end of the month. I also am not looking at monthly results/graphs until the end of the month because I tend to get tilted if I am not living up to my expectations. I am still looking at daily results and big pots played at the end of each session, but win or lose I am moving ahead to the next session/day without looking back.

Basically, I'm trying to go with the flow and play more in the moment each and every day. So far, it has had the effect of making more a lot more calm and focused when I sit down to play. I know that my main objective is to play my best each and every session, and even if I don't, I will put it behind me and try to do better next time. This is, of course, how it probably always should be.

So how big is my roll? Somewhere well over 40 buy-ins. How much am I up/down this month? I don't really know, and it doesn't really matter. How will I play tomorrow? As best I can.

The Gators are awesome! Two national championships for Urban, Timmaaaayyyy!, Ooohhhhhhhhh Percy!

Man, if I had any gamble in me I would have bet the farm on this one. Happy nontheless.

So proud. UF alum, Class of '02!

GATORRRRSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!