The Return

I have no idea how all the full time pros maintain blogs. It really amazes me, because usually when I get finished playing the last thing I want to do is sit around typing and recaping my session and why I play so bad, or good. To all you persistent bloggers out there, I salute you.

About a month ago, things were looking really ugly for me. Not just in poker but life generally. I was laid off, running low on cash, and running pretty bad in poker. Things were looking down. With my confidence on the decline and money running short, my buddy Fancy Name, asked me to play in one of the big local tournys. I told him I wasn't really interested, and I wasn't playing my best, so I didnt want to invest the money. As a compromise Fancy Name put me into the tourny and I ended up making a deep run, and chopping 4 ways. The come up gave me a ton of confidence and had me playing and feeling better then I had in a long time.

With my bankroll off life support, and no money of note coming in, I made a pretty no brainer decision to play as a means of supporting myself. Things have been pretty good, with my nearly doubling my roll in the last month or so. Grinding the local casinos has been fun and it's good to be recognized by a lot of players I haven't seen in a long time. I also made a little jaunt to LA to play, and found the 5-10 up there to be pretty profitable. Things have just generally been looking up.

I have slowed my play down, and have been grinding much more then I had in the past. It's kind of weird, because I feel like my life is finally getting back to normal, and at the moment, things are about as weird as they possibly could be.

In the last 2 weeks I have hit a little slide, but it has been much different then the slide I took at the begining of the year. In January, I was playing fast and having big losing sessions that my roll simply couldn't sustain. Now, I have a much bigger roll, and the losers I am taking are usually of the 1 buy in range. Given this, I know now that I am properly equipped to deal with the downswing and ride out the storm. Also, I am adjusting my game much better then I have in the past. I think overall I am in a much healthier place mentally.

I caught a cold a few weeks ago, and haven't been able to shake it. It was pretty brutal for awhile, and my mom was freaking out cause she thought I had the dreaded Swine Flu. Fortunately, it is passing and each day I am feeling better and better. Should hopefully be back to normal in the next few days.

Im taking the rest of the week off from poker. But that doesn't mean that I am going to let it off my mind. I spent tonight watching the new WSOP episodes, Poker After Dark, and listening to a combination of Deuce Plays and Poker Road Radio.

Sigh, it's good to be back.