Apparently Thanksgiving is almost here

Until a couple of days ago I was pretty much aloof to the fact that Thanksgiving is 3 days away?!?! I guess with everything that has went on in the past 2 months, regarding moving across the country and all the life changes Thanksgiving just slipped my mind. It's also very hard to realize what holidays are approaching due to the weather always being nice. It's always 60-70 out therefore its basically spring/fall to me. A close friend has invited me to his place with his wife and her parents for Thanksgiving dinner. It will be nice to be with a "family" on Thanksgiving and sort of take a break from the whirlwind that has been the past 2 months.

I have been grinding out alot of hands the past week or so and really trying to get back into the groove. It's almost as if I have lost the grinding mentality with all that has gone on. Now with things settling down my mind is clearer and I can start to focus back on poker. I played a nice 9 hour 12k hand sesh last Friday night as I started around midnight and got stuck a decent amount and decided to grind through till I was positive. I eventually went to bed around 12:30 pm on Saturday for a few hours and since then my sleep schedule has been messed up. I liked grinding through all night though as I havent done that much in the past few months and sort of proved to myself that I can and should more often. I think it's good to push yourself from time to time to challenge yourself.

I have been fairly happy with my play the last few days as I have been playing more 6 max and crushing it. It's interesting how 6 max forces me to be more aggressive, which in turn makes me play better. I think it's just the mentality that full ring is much nittier (tighter) and therefore a more passive game in general. I'm thinking of starting to really mix my play up to maybe 60/40 or 75/25 towards 6 max over the next month or so and see how I like it, closing out my first year playing for a living.

It is crazy to think I have been playing for almost a whole year after taking the leap. It's equally mind blowing to think how far I've come as a person, as well as poker playing within this year. I never would have imagined a year ago that I would be living in San Diego with another poker player and being moderately successful at my dream job. It's such a gratifying feeling to see and be allowed to do some of the things I've done due to poker. It's funny to think about the past year of my life and how I would not be where I am at today had I stayed in some of the relationships I was in as well as continued to go with the flow and continue with the insurance gig.

A couple relationships over the past year and a half have been very eye opening and have helped me a lot with life. There are two relationships in particular that affected my life tremendously pre/post break up and I am happy to be able to look back and take away the valuable life lessons that I learned in both of those. It's kind of funny to think when you are in those moments/relationships that that person may be "The one" or "A one", if you will, and in retrospect realize that the person you thought so highly of was actually cancerous to your life happiness and development. Overall, I hold no grudges and people will be themselves and pretend to be someone they are not. I am, as I have always and will hope to continue to be an honest person always doing what I think is right, even if it doesn't seem like the right thing to those looking in.

I am finally within 2 days of the 2k milestone. This fing thing has been the bane of my existence over the past month, it seems and I am almost finally there. I have a staking/coaching deal in the works for a higher limit with a good small/mid stakes player and I'm really looking forward to that as my first year closes and a new year approaches.

Again, I am finally at a very happy place in my life with everything seemingly coming together at once with this move to San Diego. I'm really looking forward to the next 6 months with Joey, San Diego and everything else that comes my way. Life is just great!!

Sprained ankle, stripper friend and some poker

I've played some poker this month ~17 hours or so through the first 9 days. I haven't been in the mood to grind that much. I have been playing shorter sessions and booking 2-3 wins a day. I want to get back into the grind and play 4-5 sessions a day because......money is a wonderful thing. Im now just over 10k vpps away from the $2k bonus and basically given up on the $3k bonus for this year. Im hoping to get that bonus this week and be able to finish buying things for the apartment.

I am finally starting to get settled in and not feel so overwhelmed. The past few weeks have just felt rushed with getting settled in and being unfamiliar with the area. As I was driving home last night, from the 2 story Target down the street, I breathed a sigh of relief of sorts as I am finally feeling less rushed and more settled in.

I sprained my ankle late last week after helping move the remainder of Joeys things in. I could barely walk the day after but things have gotten much better after days of icing, elevating and resting. Gotta love the fact that I can sit at my desk, prop up my ankle and be somewhat more productive at work.

We have met a few of our neighbors so far and one of them is a girl in the taking clothes off profession. She is really nice and I have been friendly yet somewhat reluctant to really get to know this girl but it has been interesting to say the least. It's cool to learn about that lifestyle as Ive never really thought much about it.

Phil Ivey & the November 9

A little look inside Phil Ivey's life thanks to the newest ESPN E60.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4620789

The piece is pretty good and gives some insight into the mysterious world that Mr. Ivey lives in and we all love to follow.

Television finally played all the way up to the final table World Series Main Event last night. These are the chip counts and players:

Darvin Moon - 58,930,000
James Akenhead - 6,800,000
Phil Ivey - 9,765,000
Kevin Schaffel - 12,390,000
Steven Begleiter - 29,885,000
Eric Buchman - 34,800,000
Joe Cada - 13,215,000
Antoine Saout - 9,500,000
Jeff Shulman - 19,580,000


Darvin Moon-fish. The hand with Billy Kopp where he check/calls the flopped Q high flush, then check raises the paired board turn and calls Kopp's shove is terrible by both players but just as bad by Darvin imo. This hand basically proved to me that he is your standard regular fish player who is not capable of laying down what he perceives to be the nuts without considering his opponents hand range in that spot. "I has a flush.....im allllllllllliiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!" Also its pretty easy to get AA/KK/88 at the perfect times and bust guys or double up every single time. I will give him credit for at least acknowledging the fact that he knows hes running good and is not a professional caliber player. I do dislike the fact that he said he would not get a coach nor wear any sponsorship patches for the final table. Apparently he really hates free money. He said something along the line of "I made it this far without a coach, Im just gonna keep playin my game." If you recognize that you are not as good as the other players then why not spend a few thousand to get coaching to maybe get a little bit of an edge???? I understand he is a simple man with very simple needs in life but don't be the arrogant old man and think you don't need help because "its not broke so dont fix it". Darvin if you run normal you will get crushed by these guys and will exitjust like Dennis Philips per last years final table.

James Akenhead-European tourney pro with success who is backed, seems like a legit player

Phil Ivey-best poker player alive. For Ivey to win would be wonderful for poker all around.

Kevin Schaffel-Part time tourney donk who kinda knows what hes doing....I've heard/read some interviews you can just tell by the way he talks about things hes not a really good player but has some concept....apparently

Steven Begleiter-Seems competent as some of the hands he played on tv. Seems maybe above average but probably not per hand reading and such but overall your standard amateur rungood pro who thinks and acts like hes awesome since hes run well for a tournament. I also have a strong disliking for the guy as he's an ex Bear Stearns high up vp?? or something

Eric Buchman-Apparently a pro from New York, but I don't know much about the guy besides some sponsorship fiasco leading up to the last few tables.

Joe Cada-Seems like a well tempered and mannered younger guy who actually recognizes the significance of making the final table and appreciates it. He also plays for a living....I think. I don't like that he is wearing UB logos leading up to to the final table but apparently signed a deal with Pokerstars or Fulltilt. Seems like a good player.

Antoine Saout-He's foreign and I know nothing about the guy besides the hand where Begleiter "playfully" hits him after Saout shows AQ and got Begleiter to fold 77.

Jeff Shulman-Obviously a good pro. He never really shows any emotion and seems to play a pretty solid game. I absolutely despise the fact that he said he would throw his World Series bracelet in the trash if he wins, however due to some personal beef/vendetta he has with the people running the tournament (whether that is the casino, media or people involved behind the scenes im not real sure). For a guy like him to say this (His family owns and operates Cardplayer magazine btw) is basically sacrilegious considering you make your living off of the game. I'm sure there are many things involved that I/the public do not know about but it comes off very d-baggy either way.

The final table starts this Saturday and will air the following Tuesday and I can't wait to see how it plays out.

The first weekend in San Diego

I survived my first weekend out in SD. Friday night in PB (Pacific Beach) was pretty sick for a nice start. Saturday we decided to go downtown as Joey heard from some girl that the place to be was downtown at some place that was charging a $50 cover.....fml right.

I obviously had not gotten a costume so I managed to procure a stethoscope from the party shop put on a shirt and tie and went as a busto doctor, basically. CJ went as a Chip N Dale, Brian went as Speedracer and Cow, obviously went as a cow. I don't know the name of the club we went to but it was 5 clubs rolled into one, so the place was really big and there were a ton of people there, so it must have been a good place.
Fortunately for us there were a ton of asian girls at this place. I'm not sure if there are just a ton of asian girls in the area in general or what but it was at least 60+% asian girls. After awhile it gets kind of old but it was fun for the night. All of us managed to talk and dance with some girls throughout the night. I of course refused to ask any of the girls for numbers because I'm a huge VJJ apparently......someday I'll put on big boy pants and grow up.

I managed to spend somewhere around $400 this weekend going out so gg going out for awhile. But, it was Halloween and our first weekend here, so we had to do it imo. Waking up in this morning was really weird. The time fell back 1 hour along with my already 3 hour time difference so my schedule is all kinds of messed up right now so hopefully I can adjust within the next week or so.

Aside from that, I'm gonna try and focus and get my grind on the first part of the month so maybe I can relax towards the end a little but we will have to see. Oh, my step-father is out of the hospital and home now as well. My mom called me the 3rd day I was here to tell me he had a heart attack and was in the hospital. Luckily everything went well and he is already out and at home. Crazy crazy crazy life all around