Updated Plans

So far this month I haven't even began grinding seriously in poker yet (yikes!) since I was in Atlantic City for some WSOP Harrahs Events. I was there for like 7 days and played only 3 of the tournaments because I overslept for two and got to AC too late for one of them. I didn't cash in any of them but went pretty deep and felt good about it considering I didn't feel like I had much of anything go right. I did play the 5/10nl 2k buyin cash games though while I was there and made like $2k in that to cover my expenses for the trip and put me up.

The hotel at Harrahs turned out to be much nicer than I originally thought it would be since it was a new tower called the Waterfront which had rooms basically identical to the rooms in Borgata's Water Club which are very nice. Harrahs didn't even bill me for the room it turns out due to a computer malfunction apparently which works out great for me.

So anyway my general plans for a while were to grind poker and make some money doing that and then head out to Australia with some friends for a nice change of pace in lifestyle and travel some. I think it's a shame more poker players don't take advantage of the freedom we have from poker at our age to travel to different places and experience different culture. Grinding poker can be a much more interesting lifestyle when you travel around with friends.

So I was talking to someone I know from poker and was invited to live with him and some other guys in a Penthouse in the Philippines which I thought looked gorgeous. Here are a couple of pictures:





I thought since I was at home grinding anyway, the prospect of being able to grind in a sick place with other poker players while being able to travel to a new place as well sounded great. Not to mention the live poker scene out there was thriving and women would apparently be very fond of an American guy, so it sounded fun. But the MAIN reason I really felt that I needed to do it was that I would be able to play on Non USA poker sites which I felt would make my grinding that much more profitable in general. That made it feel like a pretty easy decision along with everything else. I felt like I was all ready to get going in February but then had something else come up that changed my plans.

A friend of mine that plays pretty much live poker on a full time basis called me ecstatically telling me about some new site that he had just got on that was filled with a bunch of rich live players who played horribly. Apparently some live players created their own software so they can just play from their homes online instead of in home games. The software is downloaded from a private link and the game is invite only with a very small player base. I checked out the games and at least 1 very soft 10/20nl games runs there nightly with the worst players I've ever seen. My friend is up like 20k on the site in his first 2 days on there. If I could get on that site and have it add even an additional $50k to my bottom line every month then that would justify postponing something like the Phiippines and keeping my grinding here. I wouldn't be able to play on that site while in the Philippines because cash outs are done in person and deposits are done in person through cash, there are no deposit options through the software.

So it looks like I may be staying here at home and grinding and then just traveling later on with friends to Australia. I'm not sure yet just how profitable the site is but I'm supposed to be getting on there today to find out. This month so far I am like even in poker but some friends that I'm staking are winning so I think i'm probably up like $5k from not playing. I am going to get on my grind this month though because now that I've settled some things with an ex-gf of mine and not going to the Philippines I'll have full reign to begin grinding for quite some time now.

I still need to go back to Borgata later this month though and will also be going in January as well for some Winter Borgata Open events but other than that I will be on my grind and hopefully continuing to have some of the best months ever for me.

My general plans for right now were to basically grind poker for a few months here at home and then take a trip with some friends to Australia to live there for a nice change of pace in lifestyle.

Poker and Life

Well since last posting in this blog I have had a lot happen. After the jackpot I ended up taking probably a month off from poker (burnt out?) and just relaxed not doing too much. The month following that I got back to the grind at 6m with the intentions of really working on my 6m game and improving my play so that I can move up in stakes. Things were going well, I was on a solid schedule each day that kept me organized that consisted of playing poker, studying poker, and keeping balance in other areas of my life. I ended up having a halt in my plans that came in the form of a girlfriend that I got pretty close with pretty fast causing me to take yet another break from poker for probably like a month where I was just with her on a daily basis.

Around this time I also had a friend that was just absolutely crushing heads up poker that recommended I switch over to it. So eventually I did and was doing great. I started off at 2/4 and 3/6 heads up and just would grind heads up each day as well as just spending time with the girlfriend. I eventually moved up to 5/10nl and had like two 30k months back to back without really playing all that much but playing a moderate amount. Somethings were going wrong with my gf and I... one big thing being I realized that holy shit if I want to live the poker lifestyle of traveling around with friends, partying, playing poker, and meeting new people (girls) that I can't have a girlfriend. So like the asshole I am I broke up with her prior to leaving.

I ended up going on a 4 month long vacation with some friends where we were living on 6th street in Austin (great location), Vegas, and in Mexico which turned out to be like one big adventure with lots of fun times. I played poker here and there throughout the trip, first month very little.. making like 10k, in Vegas I got myself to play a bit more making like 30k, then in Mexico I only played enough to cover expenses. I decided though that it didn't make any sense to not be putting in more volume especially with the consistency and winrate I had at 5/10 heads up, so when I got back home (November) I finally buckled down and put in some volume.

I ended up having my best month ever for $84k with like probably 60k hands played. My winrate was very good though because a lot of winnings were at 3/6 from me just deciding getting hands at 3/6 is better than no hands and empty tables. So my plans now are to keep on grinding things out while I can and make as much as I can before it stops being so profitable to do so. I don't know for certain that HU will become less profitable but in my experience with poker anything that's easy money eventually does stop:

Party poker - Still have nightmares about this one
Cake poker - I did manage to get in early on this gold rush
Affilaite business with PP - lost this one for same reason PP shut down.
Doyles Room - UEGIA can go F itself.

So yeah, i'm going to try to play as much as I can while I still am doing great and hope things go well. I actually turned down some offers to go on some cool trips like Thailand (SSNL goes to Thailand) and moving into a poker house with some players because the timing was just really bad. I knew Thailand would be a huge distraction to grinding and will always be there and the poker house would be great for my game but since i'm doing HU right now and the players in the house all played 6m I just decided I would continue with what i'm doing now.

I can't wait to get back to traveling though sometime in February or March maybe when some friends of mine have also grinded out some more money as well. We are looking to take a big trip to Australia/Buenos Aires or something, but prior to that I want to kind of go on a cruise or snowboarding trip since I've had great fun in the past with both of those. For the snowboarding trip my friends and I a long time ago went with this place:

http://www.skitravel.com/index.php?module=CMS&func=view&id=234&tripType=2

Not sure if it would be cheaper to just get there on our own and pay for the lodging on our own but that site takes care of all that for you and i'm lazy so .. whatever. We'll see if that goes down though.

In the mean time i'm going to Borgata this weekend to play some WSOP circuit events and grind some 5/10, and when I get back i'll be back to grinding.