Whats up Leggotes,

I've been out the game for awhile now. About two and half weeks. In the poker world I'd say this converts to about three months of real people time. So I got a lot to talk about.

The vacation that I went on was basically exactly what I expected. Personally, I think cruises blow but my mom sort of spontaneously decided that she wanted to take a family trip and she found a good deal for a cabin. I got to spend a shitload of family time which was definitely nice. Unfortunately, my brother couldn't make the trip because he couldn't afford to miss a week of school (he's a premed at UNC-CH) but it was fun hanging out with my sis caroline as she's almost 16 (i.e. NOT 18) and we are getting a lot closer to peer status than we were even a year ago. Anyway, here's a picture from Cozumel, Mexico.



Otherwise, the trip just consisted of drinking, not hanging out with girls (the population was pretyt polarized between 14 year olds and 80 year olds, neither of which are really my cup of tea) and eating my face off. I thought about trying to get some greens on the ship, but I re-decided that I'm not that curious about exploring Honduran jails. The excursions were cool, but fuck man, I kept meeting cool people and wishing that I had more than 6 fucking hours in countries that I've never been to. The nightlife on the cruise was pretty hilariously awful. I just played some nl200 in the casino and hung out in this shitty club called the crow's nest. The poker game had a $100 buy in and was literally the worst poker I have ever seen in my life. People were limping AA with like three people limped and shit. It was outrageous. I managed to only lose about $150 somehow due to running like pure AIDS, but it was worth it to just play and not give a fuck and EL O EL at everyone in my mind and sometimes outloud.

This one woman called a 3b preflop with 66 and binked the 569dd flop. I bet, she calls, the turn is another 9 I jam for like the $75 I had left in my stack and we flip our cards. The river is the 3rd 9 and I shit you not, she's gets up and starts doing some kind of dance that I can only describe as the bastard borne of funky chicken x electric slide parentage. She was wasted, it was hilarious, and only got funnier when it was explained to her how you make a hand in Unlimited Texas Hold 'thems.

Is the previous story made funnier by the fact that the night before she sat down next to me in the 'club' (still on what turned out to be a weeklong bender) and said, 'I have a question for you'. The following dialogue when something like this:

Me: Alright ma'am (i.e. ya nasty old bitch), hit me.
NOB: You know what I'm going to ask.
Me: well if I knew that I'd be a psychic and I'd own this boat instead of riding on it.
NOB: some bullshit blather blather *her purpose is made clear* which team do you play for?
Me: Jesus lady, that's a bit forward isn't it?...

So I guess if I had wanted to bang a wrinkly old pussy, that could have been in the cards as it were. I decided I'll save relations with women of that age until I'm about 85 or something. She then proceeded to tell me, unabridged, the story of her life. I wasn't able to relate to her a bit, but I was strangely fascinated by her narration (think horrific car crash type curiosity)

I also did a ton of reading which was awesome. I'm reading both Nietzsche's Anti-Christ and Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. Both are dirty as can be and I'll discuss them in a later post when I've finished both.

Poker:

Poker's been weird. I am running pretty horrifically, as I have been for the last couple months, and yet it's not really emotionally affecting me. The time I took off of poker was crucial. A discussion I had with the poker ANIMAL Nicolak was even more invaluable. Basically, he said that a la Boywonder, a big part of his success has come down to his emotional stability and the ability to weather the storms calm and collected. Unlike Boywonder, he talked about how difficult this is for many people and I suggested that, indeed, it may be impossible for some to overcome.

That being said, I feel as though a switch has been flipped. It's very strange as I think these kinds of fundamental changes are pretty fucking difficult to actually internalize, and I'm still skeptical of whether I'll be able to maintain my zenlike balance, but I'm thrilled at the moment.

I think it's a combination of good guidance, a nice long break, dropping down to mostly nl200 for a bit and having a fucking ball coaching my small stakes students. The coaching has been fantastic, I think the 4 students that I've begun working with are instantly improving their game and I think that the perspective that I have been afforded has been tremendously helpful to me. I'm really looking forward to seeing where these people end up. I have about 3 more students with whom I'll start working with next week and I'm excited for that too.

Here are the results for almost 100k hands of play:




It sucks to be running so far under EV, and it sucks to be losing so many hands that are just completely set up, but like I said, the last 5k hands simply haven't affected me as in times past. Hopefully a heater is just around the corner. In the meantime, I'll be grinding to get better+better.

Good luck friends,
B-don