Like an NFL team who bought a couple of expensive free agents to make a Super Bowl run and now finds themselves well over the cap, I'm in rebuilding mode.

I took some time off after Las Vegas to recharge my batteries, and now, reassessing the situation, my expenses there plus a downswing online have put me into rebuilding mode. So I'm pulling up stakes and planning to grind lower limits for the month. Low variance, low stress, good edge. Without any significant travel expenses upcoming, I'll be able to do so without worry that I "need" to make money. I can focus on playing my A game and just watching my bankroll grow. I'll probably mostly play HU NL cash and Stud/8, two games where I feel my edge is relatively large / my variance is relatively low.

I may travel to Club One for the tournament series there in a week, but that'll be a short stay and not a major expense if I do go. Beyond that, I'll also be selling action to the upcoming FTOPS and WCOOP; I certainly can't afford them right now, but it's worth the shot to try to make some extra money-- my tournament A-game is as good as it's ever been, and I've gotten better at playing it more consistently, for longer periods of time.

Well, I've been home for a week now, just unwinding. Very little playing poker-- I tried for a couple days, but I still needed to decompress before I can play well.

However, I've got a few things up-and-coming there. I'm going to transition more to cash games; my goal from here on forward is to identify whereever my biggest edge is, and take it. That could be in any game; I've got to be properly rolled for the game and prepared to play it well.

I've also begun coaching MTTs. I've received some interest since I've been back, so I'm looking to take on a few more students and see how it goes. I feel good about the sessions I've run so far; I find it pretty easy to talk about the game while it's going on, and about what I would be doing and why, how I think about tournaments.

I don't have any specific plans to play tournaments until the FTOPS; I'll be selling action for that (and the WCOOP as well). While the FTOPS is going on, I'm going to hit the tournaments at Club One for a weekend in August. The weekend after that is my birthday, so I plan to be home and celebrate that appropriately.

One more thing: Since I'm often not playing too much poker, I don't feel I have much poker-related to write about. I've been working on a couple longer entries that are more than strictly just blog entries; more essays about things I think and how I approach things, in specific and broad senses. However, to my reading audience, I ask: Would you care to read about anything in my non-poker life? I feel like I've done a few things and could share a few stories, and they're probably good reading, even if they aren't about poker I want to gauge interest before I start putting up content about anything besides poker.

Not very interesting. I raised ATo and won the blinds and antes; I raised A7o on the button and folded to a shove (he showed AQo); I shoved AKo over a raise, got called by TT, and lost.

My goal for the day was not to make any mistakes, and I didn't.

I'm leaving Vegas soon-- not much other reason for me to be here. After some time to decompress, I'll be back to finding a way to make that money... I have a few new ideas I'm working on. Oh, speaking of ideas, I have a couple good ones for blog posts, that I hope to finish soon and post (I'll find motivation one way or another).

I have 38,700 chips. It was a rocky day for me, and I had something to do with that, with my impatience and attempts to make things happen when I didn't need to.

Tomorrow's goal is to stay relaxed and mistake-free. Making the money would also be nice.

I finished day 1 with 58,825 chips. After I won a big pot in the first hour, I basically did nothing until the last hour, when I caught a big rush.

It started when I called a CO open from the button with A4ss (1050 at 200/400/50; I have 28k and cover him but not my much). The SB with 20k or so also calls.
The flop is Q6s3s. Checks to me and I bet 2200. The small blind makes it 5500, so I think for a few seconds and put him in. After a couple minutes he finally calls with the KQ. I turn an ace (and bink a four as well, just for good measure).
Very next hand I'm stacking my chips and it folds to me with QQ; I throw out 1200. The young kid in the SB pretty quickly makes it 4200, so I grab all the orange chips I just won and stick them in the middle. He tanks like 3 minutes (he had 30k behind-- oops) before folding what he said was AhQh. I didn't realize he was so deep, or I would've picked a different raise size.

My table broke not long after that, and upon arrival at my new table with a 57k stack that covered everyone by quite a margin, I was given the run of the place. It didn't hurt that I ran super-hot; I had big hands in the spots I needed them and flopped really well. (I lost 16k on the third-to-last hand of the day with QQ < KK. But I won the last two pots, so no big deal.)

I did a lot of waiting through card-dead periods earlier in the day, so the run of the last hour or so felt like a nice reward. Now, I get two days off.

I may go into detail on some of the hands in a later post. I think some of them are worth discussing (although I didn't have any especially tough decisions), but I've been over them repeatedly already tonight and don't care to again just yet.