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Things are about to wrap up here in Melbourne, I have barely over a week left. In reality my free time in Melbourne ends tomorrow when I start pulling 10-12 hour days of high volume, particularly with the upcoming SCOOP on Pokerstars. I’ll be waking up at about 3:30am every morning to get a work out in then start playing poker at 4:30am, assuming the events are on the same hour the WCOOP ones were, which I believe they are. I’ll be grinding from now until the day I leave.

I woke up at 4pm today and I’ll be pulling an all-nighter to play some of the early Monday tournaments (Sunday for those of you in the States.) Within a couple days my sleep schedule will be so fucked that no real social life will be possible, so this weekend was pretty much my last time hanging out with people in Melbourne. I’m sure I’ll catch up with a few more in the next few days, but the vast majority of my day will be on the tables or at the gym, plus I need to finish my taxes. For those who are curious; living in Australia does not absolve you of financial responsibility to the United States government. So long as you’re a citizen Uncle Sam owns your ass and that pointing pimp is ‘gonna get his’.

I’m looking forward to my trip, but not particularly to the upcoming $25,000 WPT championship I’m locked into. I don’t feel like I’m playing that great lately, and a few strategy threads on 2+2 have made me wonder when I got so behind the times (polite talk for saying I might suck at the pokers.) It’ll likely be a pretty damn tough live tournament, though a few people have told me that they wound up with very soft tables last year. I believe the start bank will be 75,000 at 50/100 blinds though, and let’s just say I’m not the most experienced 750 BB stack player. Leading up to it I’ll keep trying to post more hands and keeping a more active eye on HSMTT and running hands by the friends whose play I respect. I also told Grafyx I’d do a HH review exchange with him and need to get my ass on that, and should likely do it with a few other smart guys. This is the largest buy in I’ve ever played and I have 40% of myself with no make up, so I’d really best not show up and play like a fuck-tard. I wonder if using a hyphen is correct for fuck-tard.

I’ve been keeping up my obsessive fitness regime pretty nicely. I’m playing a lot of tennis and my swing has improved substantially over a few regular matches, closer to what it was back in high school. If anyone who reads this blog plays wants to play tennis in Vegas please let me know. I’ll try to keep the diet pretty tight, but I’m sure to fuck up a few times in a place with restaurants as good and free booze as tempting as Vegas. I’ve also started practicing taking punches in my boxing training, and just a few days of that makes it clear that my trainer could whip the living shit out of me in one round despite being like half my size. I’m going to try and keep training whenever and wherever possible when I’m stationary for long periods of my trip, as experiencing the skill gradient in the sport really fascinates me and it makes for awesome training. Plus it never hurts to know how to punch someone. Speaking of I saw a massive fight when I was out last week, man what the hell are people doing fighting each other in bars when they could be hitting on chicks? Yes I’m aware it could be over a chick, but if you crack onto some dudes girl and he starts getting all touchy about it you just need to be polite and apologize to avoid conflict, no need for people to get all nuts. That said, it was pretty fucking fun watching those eight or so dudes totally trash the place and wreck each other, then keep going out on the street. Ah to be young again.