This week I have been in California for LAPC, an event run spectacularly by Matt Savage. I played cash for a few days, a mix of 10-20 and 20-40, and was spewing so much that I'm pleased to say I probably broke even. I can't once remember thinking "Hmm, this is relatively close, but I think it's a fold" and then actually folding. I can remember making numerous calls, including twice when people were bluffing with the best hand, where I said "Fuck this guy, he doesn't have it!"

That is some splendid thought process by a guy who runs a training site, eh?

Anyways, yesterday I played in the $10k HU tournament which got only 36 runners. I wound up winning my first 4 matches. Quick recap: I drew Nick Shulman first and beat him in level one with two pair vs pair + FD all in on the turn. I then drew KingDan who seemed to outplay me (I kept having 94) pretty good but it didn't matter (he is the best in the world at ~40bb HU tournament poker, "self-proclaimed") because I sucked out with KQ to aces, and on his birthday no less! I finally beat Vivek/Psyduck to end the day. Those first three draws were probably 3 of the top 5 players in the field, and considering I was probably playing my B game I was happy to luckbox my way into the Final Four. I beat Michael Binger to start the day today, and then lost to someone named Chris Moore who seemed to be a live donk but I think I had a bad read on him because he played pretty clowny and 3-bet quite a bit. Finally, I had to play the winner of the Loser's bracket, Vivek (again) and lost to him when I ran an unsuccessful bluff and then got AK to KK for the other half of my stack. I ended up placing third and winning $45k or so. I am not really unhappy with the results everything considered.

I started to get sick last night, probably from live poker and traveling in general. I am usually pretty good about taking care of myself, but somehow it's all just taken a toll on my body. I will use tonight to get to bed very early and tomorrow to do as little as possible so I can rest up for the Main on Friday. I would anticipate the Main Event being extremely soft and getting a ton of runners.

The thing that I continue to notice about poker (and perhaps gambling in a more broad sense) is how emotional it gets people. I realize that for many people this is their livelihood (or perhaps their kid's college fund) so it is important that their hand hold up or they make their flush draw, but as a logical human being I can't ever imagine playing in a game where your wins and losses directly effect the way that you feel. As a young poker player I was certainly guilty of caring too much, but it's important to train yourself to only care about the things that you can control. A combination of only caring about the things that you can control and preparing yourself to control them to the best of your ability will achieve you great success in the poker world. I can't imagine getting so upset about someone making a poor play (that I want them to make) or the dealer turning over a card that makes my opponent's hand best (it was, after all, my decision to make the wager against his range of hands anyways) anymore. I'm 23 and in the poker world I am a dinosaur. How does one know he is a dinosaur in online poker years? If you are from the United States and answer yes to the following question: Did you ever play on Party Poker?

I've lived and done more growing up than most people do in a lifetime in the last 5 years. Poker teaches you about managing your own finances, how to deal with the stresses of a difficult job, and how to find a social circle in such an isolated business. I've achieved enough to be well-known and revered in my profession, something that probably takes 5 times as long in other industries. What did I do to deserve such praise? I'm not really sure, to be honest, but it's given me an opportunity to improve on yet another area of my life. Dealing with detractors is something that anyone with any success will face. The more success that you have, the more haters you will have; some rappers would say the correlation is as constant as money and problems. What is nicest about the poker world is that it's barely real. I was able to meet some people this week that it was perceived online that I had bad blood with. What a relief it is to see how cool people are and laugh about grief and anger everyone once had over the internet (of all things).

I'm certainly in the "Poker isn't gambling boat." It would be impossible for someone who is as good as I am and who has made as much money as I have to be in any other boat. However, it's a little embarrassing to see people (to whom poker is gambling) get so worked up. I see people in the halls of the casino bitching about bad beats to their friends on the phone ("I limped and then he raised so I reraised and he went all in and so I called because I had aces and this guy turns over jacks! What do you know jack on the flop it happens everytime!") and talking about how they're going to win this next tournament ("because the donkeys can't win everytime!"). I bet if you talked to every poker player you'd have 2/3 (or more) who are convinced they are a winning player, but in reality it's probably barely 1/3 by the time you pay rake and tip (and state taxes of California!). I suppose this isn't really even something that is poker related-- some people just need to realize what they are good at and stick to it. If they want to be a weekend warrior at poker, that's fine, but you can't play for stakes you can't afford.

The moral of the blog? I'm not really sure. Don't take poker too seriously, getting your blood pressure worked up about anything is almost always a waste of time-- getting it worked up about something that is out of your control is even less constructive.

On a final note, congratulations to Andrew "luckychewy" Lichtenberger for his 10th place finish in the Venetian NAPT. He finished one place better than I predicted him to, and he three barrel bluffed it off which is even more admirable. Also, good luck to Ashton "The One Man Wolfpack" Griffin who is representing Leggo in the Venetian High Roller. He won his table yesterday over legendary Chris Moneymaker!