I went up to Austin last weekend for my first real vacation in nine months or so. It was a revelation; a great chance to decompress and a reminder of just how good that feels. It's necessary; Houston can be a stressful place, and the vacation from routine is a great way to clear one's head and focus on what's important.

It can also be a good place to get in some work distraction-free. Some of you may know Apestyles as a very good and consistent tournament player (which is a big understatement, but I didn't want to be like "brag I know Apestyles holla"); I visited him for a day and got on the tournament grind, and it was very satisfying to be able to talk about hands and thought processes and the like. It really helps my game, and it's one thing I miss from my life in Houston, where I don't have any of my friends in poker nearby (I think the closest person I know is about 45 minutes away). I'm trying to reconnect with my community of people and restore that, not just for the camaraderie it fosters but also from the practical perspective of getting advice.

Today was a rough downswing as I got badly outdrawn over and over again in cash. This is gonna force me to settle down and tighten up my play and refocus. I can do it! There's really no other option but to work harder than ever at getting better. So I put my head back down, focus, and get ready to grind some more.

I'm gradually learning to structure my life better. I've pared my life of most of the unimportant things, and now I'm trying to stop wasting time and money. My bankroll can't grow if I'm spending on unnecessary things, and I can't be as effective if I let unnecessary activities take up my time-- I can't play as often and I won't be as focused when I do play.

I feel like it helps my game, too. My mind isn't occupied wondering what else I could be done or what needs to get done, because now is poker time.

In that sense, I feel like I've made tremendous strides. I still have many leaks to fix, though; keeping my A-game at all times is probably the biggest one; developing the discipline to actually play a serious workload is another. I've made gradual progress in both of these areas, but I know I'm nowhere near fulfilling my potential.

I can elaborate on this if anyone would like. Perhaps I'll write up a general idea of my daily routine; I'm sure it's markedly different than most poker players'.

Geez, I'm terrible at updating this thing regularly. I keep thinking about it, and then I get to it once every two weeks or so.

Anyway, a big reason I don't update very often is that I just don't find that what I do makes for a very compelling story. I'm just grinding low-stakes HU, building a bankroll and moving up steadily (or at least, that's my aim). I had scheduled some time for the LAPC this month, but my plans fell through due to lack of interested investors. (I guess my shit does stink.)

I've been putting in a ton more hours (already as many hands in February as I had each of the last two months), so I'm seeing more situations and getting better, and thinking about the game more, but at the same time, I haven't come up with much for a good blog entry. The lessons of poker are the lessons of poker-- be patient, be aggressive, don't tilt, manage your money, select your games well, and don't take any of it personally-- and I'm learning them again one at a time.

I've also been thinking about the UIGEA, and how patently ridiculous it is. I intend to write a series on why it's ridiculous and why poker should be legal all across this great land. I try to stay politically aware, so maybe I can use that for good, for something that's obviously an important issue personally.

I just heard about this, but it seems that Stars is offering a little freeroll series the last week in January for bloggers. Winners get SCOOP tickets and the like. So, anyway, being a poker player with a blog, I decided to enter.

Unfortunately, I can't get the graphic working on this post because we use UBB instead of HTML, but let me keep trying. (update: now it works. )



I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 404773

I had a few bad sessions in a row the last couple of days-- nothing crushing, but enough to make me pause and rethink what I was doing. The loss could be attributed to a number of things-- sloppy, unfocused play; complacency; losing 3 different pots for stacks where I had >90% equity when the money was committed; any resultant tilt from trying to win back those pots; poor physical and mental maintenance. Whatever the case, I decided to review my play a little and see what I thought the best option for retooling my leaks would be.

And that's when I realized, in my review, that I'd played for twenty-four days in a row.

You think it might be time for a break?

I decide to make myself not play poker today. I realized I'd been holed up in here, occasionally taking breaks to stretch or watch something, but still hardly leaving my room. I needed to get out.

I didn't do anything fancy. I went for a little jog in the late afternoon. I cooked myself a nice little dinner. I went out for a couple of beers with some friends I hadn't seen in a while. It was a nice reminder that there's more to life than poker, than my goals I'm working for. A reminder that life is happening right now, and it's good to just stop and experience it every once in a while. A reminder that, most of all, I really do enjoy a wide variety of experiences and need them all to feel happy and fulfilled in my life.

I'll probably get back to playing as soon as tomorrow-- I couldn't totally get away from the game, as evidenced by this blog entry-- but I want to have a clear head and a proper frame of mind first. I've been happy with my progress in those 24 days, but it's showed signs of slowing (and even reversing course), and I don't want to wait any longer to address that.