Lots of New Stuff

So it's been a little over two months since I've blogged, mainly because I had been out of poker for a little bit. Even last month when I was back to 10nl, for some reason I decided not to, but I'd like to get it back up again. I'm hoping some of you who read before will come back and continue to read here. I'm going to have tons of stuff about poker, obviously, as well as my new career and some personal life stuff.

Here are my goals for August:
1. 8 tables max, preferably 6 during sessions. Although it takes much longer, I'd really like to hit my hand goal without playing like a robot. I've found that my play is drastically better with the tables cut. I've learned from others that improving your play is much more important than "x" number of hands/month. I also don't think there's anyway I'll become a better player and be able to move up from 10nl without really concentrating on less tables.
2. Clear the bonus. This should take a little less than 24k hands.
3. May be affected by #2, move to 25nl by the end of the month. By clearing the bonus, I wouldn't need a huge month to move up.

Many of you know I am starting a new job in the fall. I took the final certification exam last week, so pending I get a passing result from that, I am officially hired, as per my final interview from a few weeks ago. I will be teaching high school and middle school choral, as well as a Music in our Lives class. I am meeting with some people this month to start getting introduced to the school, paperwork, and all that good stuff. Not only is this an awesome job, but I am going to making a paycheck that should get me out and own my own within a year!

Lastly, I'm also going to talk about some other goals in here. For those of you that don't know, I was an athlete in high school, and during my junior year of college got serious about weight lifting. During that time, I made some huge changes to my lifestyle and made awesome gains, which have stuck with me. Unfortunately, for about the last 6 months or so, I've been hitting the gym regularly, but am not satisfied with the way things are going. I'm attempting a body transformation that is based around a whole new diet, and a little different of a workout. I'm trying a bulking phase for the nexct 5-6 months, followed by a cutting phase after. The main thing here is: Protein, protein, protein. I have always been a huge lover of chicken, steaks, pork, ect., but trying to get this 1/2 cup of cottage cheese down is very difficult. Many of the foods I am supposed to be eating aren't responding well, so I'm going to use this first week to try to get my body used to them, a little at a time.

That's all for now. Hope many of you old friends and some of my new ones will check in here to see my life progress. Now to the grind!

First Session

Played a mini-sesh tonight to get back into the swing of things. I 8 tabled for about 40 minutes and played well. I'm debating what sorts of goals to make for June. By the end of July, hopefully I will be rolled back for 25nl after clearing a bonus that started way long ago. I'm going to be pretty much nitting it up at 10nl, since that seems to be a very profitable way to play it. I'm also trying to do a lot more thinking for myself before asking others. Don't get me wrong, I've made some great friends who are great players, but a lot of times I don't even give an ounce of thought to a question I have before I ask it. Goals and shtuff coming in a few days.

Back?

Not sure if anyone really reads here anymore...I haven't played poker at all really for a couple of months; the occasional MTT, SnG's here and there, but nothing major. I am actually considering getting back into some grinding. I don't have a 9-5 summer 'job', but I am making money playing a lot of concerts, and hopefully we'll have a few weddings coming up soon.
Anyway, it seems every time I think about just not playing poker at all, I realize how much I like poker and what a waste it would be not to play. With that said, I am waiting on trying to get funds back onto Stars. I know it's not much, but I am going to start grinding 10nl with ~20 BI's. Considering I was working on a reload bonus before and had like $500 to start, this is kinda nuts. At the same time, if I really need to, I can load on another $100 so I think I'll be fine. If any of you are reading this, I've missed talking poker and spending a lot of time on the forums, so hopefully I'll be back soon.

Life Update

For those of you that might be interested, things are going well. Within the last few weeks, while not having a large BR to work with, I've really been focusing on school. My graduation is a week away and it feels awesome. I am lining up summer work as well...while it might not be as fun as grinding all week long, at least I'll finally have some steady money coming in. Also, I've been offered a job for the fall! I'm really stoked about it and it's going to take something really incredible to come along for me not to take it.

As far as poker goes...I kept ~$100 online because I knew eventually I'd want to play. I played a bunch of small MTT's, with nothing major happening except for a double cash in the Early Doubles a few weeks ago. Probably been around break even in them, but I have come back to the infamoussssssss....SNGS!! I know they are death, but I used to have a really solid game in them and am working on getting it back. I'll probably just be 2-tabling the $5's for a bit, until my roll grows. I also sattied into the mini FTOPS deepstack $33 event which is tomorrow night. Normally, me and my nitty self would just take it and add to my BR, but I'm deciding to play this one. Believe it or not, this is almost like a "major" Sunday MTT for me, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Things are going really well, and I'm happy to be enjoying my life and still playing some poker here and there :D

Real Life

Got some money moved over to FTP. Withdrew the rest for personal reasons. Going to enjoy life, spend some time on the forums, and slowly build up on the side of the rest of my life.

Thinking...

I love poker. I just don't know where to go with it. Maybe I need to stop setting all these limits for myself and enjoy it. Maybe I should continue to grind 25nl and play the occasional MTT or session of SNGs. Might need a few days to figure this one out..

March Results/April Goals

Unfortunately, my March results are going to be summed up very quickly. I was incredibly busy with student teaching and things changed poker wise for me. I played only 12k hands, while retaining Silver status on Stars. I played break-even poker for ~10k hands and lost about a buy-in at the very end. I also had decent live results, totaling $175 in profit. For the second half of the month, I started getting into HU SNG's and had the following results at two levels:

$6.25
47 wins in 69 games
#132.25 in profit
30.78 ROI

$11.50
21 wins in 35 games
$59.5 in profit
14.78 ROI

I'm not even going to re-post the goals I set for last month, because I failed miserably. The good news is, I found another form of poker which I have skill in and is becoming very profitable for me. I've decided to continue playing HU SNGS for the entire month of April. My goal is 100 games/week, for a total of 400 games, with maybe a few extra in the last couple days of the month. I was shooting for a 70% winrate last month, but am settling on 65% for April. This would mean a weekly profit of ~$280, which would make for a +$1K month.
I've been using recording software and making videos of multiple HU sessions. I always make them with the idea that I may show them to others, talking myself through every hand and decision. Now, I am completely over-rolled for the $11.50's but I am going to try playing a large volume of these while I continue to get comfortable. I was very settled at the $6.25's and felt nervous starting the $11.50's but now they're simple. I'm not going to post huge plans for the months to come, but I think I may have found a form of poker that suits me and is very profitable.


Soooooooooooooooo, as far as April goes:

1. 100 HU SNGs/week, and 400 for the month. These will most likely be at the $11.50 level, unless I decide to give the $23's a shot.
2. 65% Winrate, 24.35 ROI.
3. Post more on CC. This month I strayed away from the forum and was just reading tons on CC and 2p2 for entertainment purposes. I really want to get back into the poker mindset that I was in when 2009 started.
4. Update your damn blog more. I want to make this more interesting with pictures, HH's, ect. to make some of the guys from the forum actually hold some interest in seeing what I'm up to.

I'm working on getting tracking software atm. I also have Spring break in a couple of weeks, so I should be able to reach my goals for the month. I'm also trying to turn the phrase "Let me run good" into "Let me play solid poker". So, let's do it.