Here are todays results. Not the best of starts but i am going to keep a positive attitude and this will still be a huge month. I dont think i played terrible, not great either, but i lost a bunch of flips and everytime i got it in w QQ/KK i ran into a AA.



I played 1.5 hrs of pretty intense basketball today but my meals were not as healthy as i would like but i didnt have as much as i normally would have.

I'll post my questionable hands tomorrow, dont want to punish myself anymore for today.

May your luck be better then mine,

EJ

Saturday's UFC card was probably one of the best ones i have ever seen (and i have seen pretty much every card since Hughes/Gracie). There were 3 highlight real knockouts, one nice submission and a great main event war between Nog and Couture. The main event ended up ruining my 4 fight parlay, but i am not crushed because it was just a fun fight to watch. I thought that after watching Nog's last fight that his career was pretty much over, but clearly i was wrong. He looked really good, espcially his boxing i thought, and got the better of randy in every aspect. I thought Randy landed some good shots aswell, but the most impressive thing he did in this fight is survive the 3 rounds. I dont really know what this means for his career but he is 46 and maybe it is finally catching up to him.

I am happy for Marquart because i bet on him and it was just a sick knockout. It came 13 seconds in and Maia landed on his on face. There was also a 7 second KO, which is a UFC record, and a pretty impressive Thiago Silva KO of Keith Jardine. I dont really know whats gonna happen with Keth but he has had a few really bad KO's over the years, so i dont really know how many more he should take.

The diet has been going pretty well, but i think i might be having wings tonight so that will be a bit of a slip up. I have given myself one night a week to eat out, which shouldnt be too bad if i eat ok the rest of the time and continue exercising. Yesterday i did a little more then 1/2 hr on the bike and ended up burning about 450 calories. I also did a short back/biceps workout. Today i played about an hour of pick up basketball and i feel like my conditioning is getting better.

Over the last 2 weeks i have spent over 1k on car repairs. First there was some engine trouble that cost me to lose my car for a few days (and $340 to repair) and today it was replacing rare breaks and rotors. My car was making a noise every time i breaked because the rotors were rusty and the breaks were old, so both had to go at cost of $ 700. I also had a dentist appointment, since today was the last day i was still insured by my old university. The insurence didnt cover everything so i ended up spending some more money there, so today ended up being an expensive day.

I didnt play any poker again today but did book a small win in the short session i played yesterday. Tomorrrow is the 1st ad im hoping to have a big month since i havent played much lately and since this moth has been a costly one. It would be really nice to run good and change my momentum.

Best of luck to all,

EJ

I weigh 230 this morning and im not going to weigh myself again until Oct.1. Today i did a 30 min run on the treadmill and ended up running 3.42 miles and burning 455 calories. I also did a leg/ab workout that lasted about 45 minutes. I didnt want to go too hard sincei havent done legs or abs in a few months but i still thik i'll be stiff tomorrow.

I didnt really have breakfast which isnt unusal, i had some chicken for lunch at my parents and i also had a another decent meal with my parents later in the day. I didnt eat anything too bad today and i also didnt eat too much, so lets hope i can keep this up. I didnt play any poker today but, besides arsenal losing to man u, today still felt like a pretty productive day.

I am looking forward to the UFC tonight, and i have a randy/nate/vera/munoz parlay along with another bet on nate, so lets hope things go well.

Ejay

I have been home for a week now and while i haven’t been completely unproductive it is time to step things up in all areas of my life.

POKER

I’ve been playing a decent amount this week at 100nl, I cashed out most of my money before the trip, and it started off a bit rocky but things are starting to turn around and I should be in back in the 200nl game by September. With that in mind, here are the September goals:

• Play no more than 6 tables at time and focus more on note taking/reads.
• Review/post hands everyday and watch at least 3 vids a week
• Try to get in a big volume (60k+ hands) and get at least $500 in the party promotion.
• Don’t play when tired
• Start utilizing other improvement tools.

This last point is critical. I have been doing review/ stove/video for quite a while now and i think i need to expand my ways of learning poker. I am going to try to learn poker razor since that seems like it can be a good program. I am also going to make more of an effort to due deeper hand analysis and also just more math related break down of the game, like 3 betting ranges and what not. I will also try to read more strategy stuff, like old wells on 2+2 or other posts that i think could be beneficial. I feel like that this is a tool I have underutilized. Finally, I will pm a few people from leggo/2+2 and try to schedule times where we can discuss strategy/breakdown hands etc.. I also have not done enough of this and if you are interested send me a pm and I’ll get back to you.


FITNESS/DIET


My weight has been up and down over the last few years and this is something that i am determined to address. After not doing anything for the last 2 months I weighed 230.4 the day after i came home. After cutting down to under 200 in order to win a bet, I have once again fallen of the wagon. Granted that my real weight was about 208-210 when I won the bet and that I was around 215 before going to Vegas, I feel like I have put on too much weight. This time instead of trying to lose lots of weight in a short period of time I am just going to try to exercises regularly and improve my diet and hopefully the weight will take care of itself.
I feel like that my diet is much more of a problem for me then getting exercises. On average I think I exercise a lot more than a normal person but my diet is usually a mess. This is largely due to the fact that I CAN’T COOK ANYTHING. That is not an exaggeration; I literally have never cooked in my life. I will try to learn 3 simple dishes that I can make and that are reasonably healthy. If anyone has any suggestions i would be very appreciative, especially if it’s something to do with chicken.

Here are the other goals:
• Lift weights and do cardio 4x a week and also swim/play ball once a week.
• Eat out junk a max of once a week (McDonalds etc).
• No eating past 8 pm, unless its fruits or light healthy snack and even those shouldn’t be too late.
• Minimize processed foods.

LIFE

Other things that I want to accomplish:
• Keep track of all money spent. I am reading ‘Your Money or Your Life’ and they recommend a 9 step system to improve your finances and help you gain financial independence. I haven’t finished yet but there is some useful stuff in there and I will write more when I am finished.
• Be more socially active on weekends. Get out more, keep in touch with friends and look for ways to add new activities or expand social circle.
• Try meditating
• Go to bed no later than 12, except weekends.
• Read at least 2 books.
• Cut down television/just laying around time.
I also hope to update this at least once every couple of days during the month to make sure that I stay on track. Best of luck to all,

Ejay

After being away most of the summer i am back home. The summer was pretty great, and i think i’ll look back at it as being one of the most memorable summers of my life. The summer started with a weeklong in Vegas trip with my buddies and it was followed by 5 weeks in Europe.

Vegas was pretty awesome! I went with 5 or 6 non poker playing buddies so i didn’t really do much gambling there but i had a great time anyway. We stayed at the Monte Carlo and i thought it was pretty decent although it’s probably in the lower tier of the hotels on the strips. We visited most of the other hotels within reasonable walking distance on the strip and it seemed like Bellagio and Ceasar’s were two of the nicer places. One of the nights there we saw the Cris Angel/circque du soeil and that was pretty cool show. We also went to the shark thingy at the mgm which was pretty cool and we went to the NBA hall of fame exhibition at Planet Hollywood. They had some pretty cool stuff there like Kobe’s shoes from the 81 pt game, Wilts jersey/ball from the 100 pt game, first ever rules sheet, first ever shot clock and some other things that basketball junkies like myself are impressed by.

As far as going out, we went to Pure one night and it was pretty cool but EXTREMELY packed. It seemed like you couldn’t do anything without bumping into someone. We also went out to a couple of lounge type places which had good atmosphere and were generally a really good time and much cheaper than the big clubs. One of our last night’s we found a place (Casino Royale) where they had $1 margaritas and $1.5 shots and needless to say we took full advantage of this by downing like 10 margaritas and 5-10 shots in the hour or so before going out. The entire trip was a blast and something i will remember fondly for a long time. I hope to go back to within the year but this time play more poker along with the parting. I don’t think i have ever seen so many beautiful women as i did in that week. It was amazing. Everywhere you turned there was like 5 gorgeous girls. I hope heaven is like that but just a little cooler because the Vegas heat is crazy.

The European trip was pretty awesome too. This was more of a family visiting trip so there was no crazy partying but it was still fun and educational. I started in a small town in Serbia where my grandmother lives and a place where I lived with my mom and my brother while my dad was in the Bosnian war. Being there was nice and relaxing and it brought up some fun memories from my youth. I also got to see tons of people that I don’t get to see often and I had a great time re-connecting with them.

After that we went to Montenegro for 8 or 9 days because they are suppose to have nice beaches and this was kind of like a vacation within the vacation. The place we went to was pretty good except for the fact that they allow smoking on the beach (everyone smokes everywhere in Eastern Europe) and there were like a million cigarette butts in the sand which really bothered me. I also got a little sun burned the second day there but other than that it was pretty cool.

The last destination was Sarajevo a city where both me and my brother were born in and a place where a ton of my family still lives. We stayed there for about a week+ and had a mini family reunion, which was great and we also visited our old house that got destroyed during the war. It was hard to tell that there was a house ever there since no one upkeeps the property while we are gone but it was still kind of sad to see the ruins. We also got some great pictures, I’ll try to post some another time, including getting a picture at the place where WW 1 started. Sarajevo is a pretty old city so there is definitely some pretty cool things to see for those that are considering doing some travelling through the area. There were a ton of backpackers there this time around something that I don’t remember seeing nearly as much from my previous visits.

The entire summer was super fun but I’m pretty happy to be back at home. I really missed my bed, my place and my privacy. I took a few days to just relax and catch up on sleep and hanging out with friends that I haven’t seen in a while but now it’s time to get back to business. This summer kind of lit a fire under me so there is a few things that I want to do before this year is over. I will have a goals post in the next entry and I will force myself to post results in order to stay motivated. I think i might try to enter the job market again but haven’t really decided so ill need to figure that out also.

Lastly, while I complain sometimes, I feel so blessed/humbled/grateful to be in the position I’m in. The fact that my entire family got through the war unharmed and that I got a chance to move to Canada is more amazing than anything I could’ve imagined. There is a lot of people from my homeland who either died, had their loved ones die, or are struggling to survive and for me to get out of all that is incredible and I never want to take that for granted. I might get into this more another time, but this is already a super long entry. Until next time,

Ejay

I just finished booking my trip and will be in Vegas from the 26th of June to the 3rd of July. I am going with non poker buddies, so i dont know how much i'll get to play, but i am still hoping to play a few days and also meet some fellow Leggo members while im there. I am also hoping to get recommendations from others as to where the best places would be for like 2/5-5/10 nlh games and also best shows to see and places to go out etc.. We are staying at the Monte Carlo and their poker room seems pretty shitty so i think if im playing it will be somewhere else. I am also curious if it is best to wire money or just take cash and have an interact. I am only planning on taking a few couple K and i can kind of distribute that between my friends, so it shouldnt be a problem.

I might try to qualify for the main event (online or down there) and if i do i'll have to extend my stay a little bit but that wouldnt be bad deal. I also might play one of the $1500 events or some of the othe non wsop tourneys but i havent decided really. This trip starts my summer of travel. After this i will be in europe visiting family for about a month and after that i might have a week long Carribean get away, so this should be fun times. It doesnt seem like i'll be playing much poker the next little while and thats probably for the best because i have sucked for like 3 months now.

I am pretty excited about this and hope to meet a lot of you guys there.

Best of luck (esp Seabeast/clayton)

ejay

It has been a year since i started this blog, and I think it has been the worst and least informative blog on the internet. This also means that today is my birthday and that I am another year removed from my youth.

I have accomplished some major thing over the last year of my life, like graduating from university and buying my own condo. I have not yet found a job, and i really havent looked very hard to be honest. This means that i have been a 'poker pro' for the last 5 months and the results have been pretty mixed. I love the freedom and flexibility, but i have not done as well as i wanted due to lack of study time and focus. I will likely continue playing poker in the recent future since i will be going to Europe to visit family for a month in mid July.

As everyone does I have some goals for the next year and since this is my 25th birthday i have some 5 year goals that i wont post since they are boring and detailed.A few of the 1 yr goals are:
* Go to at least one new country i havent been
* Do one thing i havent done before (skydiving?)
* Make an effort to find a job
* Figure out career direction
* Read 20 books
* Have one interesting and informative blog.

I have been watching a lot of basketball lately and it is killing me. I made bets at the start of the playoffs that it would be a Cavs vs Lakers final, and that is very much in doubt (espcially since the Cavs are down 3-1). I won a nice bet for picking Magic over Celtics but if i lose these (mainly the Laker one) this will be a very dissapointing postseason. Lets hope Kobe and the Lakers can get me a win for my birthday.

Be good

Today is a dream for me. The day starts with an Arsenal FA cup semi-final vs Chelsea and tonight there is a ufc card featuring one of my favirote, probably my favirote, fighter Shogun. Today is also the start of the nba playoffs and even though it seems like that the Laker/Cav final is guaranteed there should be some exciting basketball. There is also a late night F1 race if all of this isnt enough.

Im pretty excited about how the Aresnal season has developed. The team has had a ton of injuries and for a while there it looked like the season would be a complete disaster and the team would not qualify for next years champions league. Now that the stars are back the team is in the semi-final of the FA cup, Champions leauge and looks like a sure bet to qualify for the champions league next year. Todays game should be really exciting because both teams play a entertaining style. Arsenals back four (defence) is pretty banged up with only 1/4 regulars starting but i like our chances.

Shogun has looked pretty unimpressive in his 2 ufc fights and a lot of people are down on him. I am hoping for the return of the Shogun that dominated pride and i think we will get it today and that he will knock out Chuck Liddell but this could just be optimistic thinking from me.

After being down on basketball for a few months, i have been watching a lot lately and am back to loving it. There is still a lot of things that anger me about the NBA but those are mostly of court things that i have been able to put aside for the time being. I also bet a lot of money which always helps build extra excitment. If its not a Lakers vs Cavs final (espcially LA) im going to be broke and on suicide watch.

Cleveland vs Detriot

Cleveland is -3000, which means that they arent worth betting but i fually expect them to crush Detriot in either 4 or 5 games.

Atlants vs Miami

Atlanta is between -135 and -145 on the books that i have seen. They have been somewhat of a suprise this season but not as big of a suprise as the Heat. Dwayne Wade has been incredible pretty much all year long and i expect him to have a HUGE series here. I think that this will definitely be the best series in the East and might end up being the best of all first round match ups but i really want to see the Heat win, so i can get the LeBron vs Wade in round 2. I think Heat win in 6 and Wade puts up 35/7/7 and gets to the line 15 times a game.

Boston vs Chicago

In the book i bet Boston is -425ish even with Garnett likely being done for the year. I think this can be a really fun series to watch with the way the Bulls have been playing lately and i expect the games to be pretty close. I love watching Derrick Rose and Paul Pierce so that should be fun for me as a fan and i want this series to last at least 6 games. With that said i like the Celtics in 6.

Orlando vs Philly

Orlando is -700ish. I dont really like either of these teams and i dont really care very much about this series but the Magic should win pretty comfrotably even though they are a little banged up. Magic in 5.

The West Playoffs should be a blast. Aside from the Laker/Jazz match up, all of the other series could really go either way and there should be a ton of awsome first round games.

Lakers vs Utah

The Lakers are like -2000. I like the Jazz but, like Bobbo, i have realized that they have no chance to beat the Lakers. The Jazz have big edge in the point guard match up but other then that the Lakers have a clear edge and should win in 5.

Portland vs Houston

Portland is about -140. This is the series that i am most excited about. The Blazers are team that a lot of people think is the best bet to beat the Lakers in the west. Houston has had a good season and they havent advanced past the 1st round in the Yao era. I have seen the Rockets a few times and for some reason i like watching them play and the same can be said about the Blazers. I want the Rockets to win, so im going to say Rockets in 6 but this is far from a lock.

Denver vs New Orleans

New Orleans is +187 in my book. I could not believe that line. I dont think that this Nuggets team should be a very big favirote vs anyone in the playoffs, but espcially against NO a team that is a bad match up for them. Chris Paul will dominate and even though the Hornets have some banged up guys i really like their chances against a Nugget team full of head cases that could explode at anytime. I like NO in 6.

San Antonio vs Dallas

The spurs are -140ish. I am a fan of the spurs and Tim Dincan is one of my favirote 2-3 players ever. For this reason i am not picking against the spurs in the first round. Spurs in 7.

Round 2-Finals

I think Cleveland and LA will beat whoever but the other 2 match ups will be fun. I will have to see how Orlando looks but for now i give them a little edge over the Celtics. The other match up could be any combo of the 4 teams but since i picked SA and NO i like SA.

I think Lakers and Cavs are on a collision course so i expect them both to win.

For some reason my gut is telling me that the Lakers will win the title this year, so for now i like them. If im right i will be kicking myself for not betting them but i just think they have a lot more talent then the Cavs and as much as i like Lebron and want him to win i just dont think they have enough.


BETS

I made the biggest bet of my life on the Lakers to win the west. I also have them in a parlay with the Cavs to make the finals.
I also bet 2u on Cavs to make finals to win 2.01u (pre KG injusry)
I bet 2.5u on celtics to beat bulls to win .6u
1u on NO to win 1.87u
.5u on a parlay of Mia/Hou to win 3.85u

March was a pretty bad month for poker and somewhat disappointing overall. I didnt really meet any of my poker goals and i got away from some of the positive things life wise that i was doing previously. Since i am somewhat paranoid, and i blame my bad month on posting a graph last month, i am not going to post my graph this month. I ended up about 3.5k over 45k hands but the most disappointing thing is that i was never really focused when i was playing and i didnt work on my game very much at all. I think i ran somewhat bad, but not terrible or anything which is kind of sad considering how poor my results were.

The only goal, poker wise, is too be focused when playing. I want my mind to be focused on poker when playing and really stay in tune with the game flow and taking notes on other players. I also want to spend more time working on the game and have some sort of play to work on the game ratio set up.

I also want to start reading again. I read a lot in the January and February and kind of got away from it this last month. I watched a lot of basketball, which i enjoyed, but i really want to get back to reading more. I plan on watching the NBA playoffs but this shouldn't affect my poker since i dont play much at nights anyway. I am also looking forward to the final 4, even though Louisville is out and my bracket is trashed. I hope Michingan State wins because it would be such a good story but whatever happens i just want to see good games.

Today is the start of one of the best sports events on the calendar. After not watching much hoops this year the last week or so i have been watching a ton from high school to the NBA. My former high school team lost in the quarters and the CIS (Canadian college basketball) held their annual 8 team tournament this past weekend which had some really good and close games. One of the guys, Chris Dyck, that i played against in high school (we lost in the finals to them actually) was one of the tournaments best players and his team ended up in second place. It was nice to see someone i competed against, whiling holding my own, being mentioned as one of the best players in the country. Like everyone else i have studied the brackets carefully and im sure that i have the perfect bracket. This year i feel weird because i didn’t really watch much college hoops, so all my gambling is because im a degenerate and not because i feel like i know what im talking about. I guess that makes me like 99.9999% of the people out there who have no idea who most of these players or teams are but still join pools all across North America.
This tournament is so fun to watch because there is always sick games and upsets. The emotion is also unreal and there is always some great stories that you get to know throughout the tournament. This is usually enough but this year im also involved in a 2+2 ssnl pool and also some other pools that are offered on the various websites. I have also made a few ‘futures’ wagers which i hope will make the games even more exciting to watch. I have a wager on Louisville to win at +650, Louisville to win their bracket at +150, Villanova to last longest of all the 3 or 4 seeds at like +525, Memphis to win their bracket at +225. I am liable to deposit more money and make more bets because im a degenerate. I would be pretty happy to just break even because its not so much about money, its just making the games more fun to watch. I also have a day 1 parlay of Butler +1.5, Maryland +1.5, Michigan on the moneyline and Western Kentucky +4.5 that pays like 20-1, so keep your fingers crossed.
After not watching much hoops this year the last week or so i have been watching a ton from high school to the NBA. My former high school team lost in the quarters and the CIS (Canadian college basketball) held their annual 8 team tournament this past weekend which had some really good and close games. One of the guys, Chris Dyck, that i played against in high school (we lost in the finals to them actually) was one of the tournaments best players and his team ended up in second place. It was nice to see someone i competed against, whiling holding my own, being mentioned as one of the best players in the country.I have also started watching more NBA lately and i think im going to write a super long thing about what i like, quite a few things, and more importantly what pisses me off about the NBA