So lately, I've just been grinding the big 4: book, gym, poker, and coaching. I haven't been on pace with the book, but everything else is going fine.

I'm not grinding the other 3 enough because I spent the weekend volunteering at my high school because we held the NC private school wrestling state tourney this year. It was awesome to see all the little dudes who were 80lb 7th graders my senior year just destroying people. I saw a lot of people's younger brothers, people I'd wrestled and befriended from other schools around NC, wrestling, too. I love how the sport pretty much forces you to find something inside yourself and put it on the mat. Although most of the time it doesn't seem like a team sport, the camaraderie and selflessness found within the sport are lifelong bonds. Everyone has so much respect for each other, it's an awesome thing to revisit.

Poker has been going pretty well lately. I had one pretty bad session that I followed up with a good session. I had a few hands in which I think I've been missing some thin value and so I've plugged a few leaks in my game in the past weeks, which is nice because it's increasingly rare that something pops up that's recognizable without grinding a lot of math or opponent specific reads + math.

Here's a tough hand I just had that I posted in the HSNL strategy forum.

I keep being happy about my results as of late, but I'm even more excited how close I am to being able to beat 5k for a decent clip. All of those guys are very good and I'm pretty certain I have what it takes to be winning in those games for a decent amount. I'm doing a pretty shitty job this "month" about putting in hands. It sucks that there are only 28 days and that I've been busy for a lot of those days doing non-poker and non-poker playing poker things.

I bought this movie:

Billy Zane plays The Phantom. Need I say more?

Anyways, I'm feeling great about things lately and I'm excited because I have some fun traveling coming up soon. I'm going to go to Boston to hang out with some poker buds who play higher than me, hopefully learn a few things from them and party off our faces. I have a snowboarding trip planned for Tahoe and I'm supposed to visit one of my best friends in NYC where I plan to light a lot of money on fire buying tons of great food and drinks and custom suit things.

Take care guys!

-Reid