Its going to be March soon. For me that means taking a stab at playing full time. I'll be playing NL25 during the day and tournaments at night. Why NL25? Because the players suck. And I suck less. Probably could get away with up to NL100, and Im rolled for it, but I'll take the NL stuff one step at a time. My outside interests pay my bills so if I dont make any money I wont feel too badly - well, I will but I'll be able to eat and stuff. I always wanted to know what it would be like to grind 30+ hours a week, so here we go. 4 tables should keep me busy, I hope.

Im not going to Viejas this weekend because my car is giving me fits. I drive a Chevy TrailBlazer and the drivers window doesnt roll down. It makes for awkward trips to the bank, and it really pisses me off, so it goes in the shop tomorrow. I think by about June I'll have a new car, not an SUV and definately not a Chevy. I have my eyes on a new Toyota Tacoma, maaaybe a Tundra if I find a used one that fits the bill.

So since I'll be at my computer quite a bit for the next 30 days or so, feel free to send me an IM - my screen name is thealphatheory1. We can talk strategy or whatever, Im not too particular.

Yawn...Boring end of the week. Tournaments didnt go so well, cash games went okay and I was up a little on the week. Im having a hell of a time getting money transfered and I have a couple grand sitting in limbo until my account is approved, which sucks. Tonight I played the $24+$2 $28,000gtd, which became $37k because of 1558 players. I was hella card dead for the first half hour but kept rolling nicely. AT<AJ and I got crippled pretty badly. I stuck around for 35th and a little payday of like $130...Lame. Oh well

Next week is a coaching week for me...I have a MTT coach working with me on Tuesday and sometime during the week I'll be working on limit 6max with another coach, my cash game of choice. Both coaches are winners and players that I trust, so hopefully we'll be able to plug my leaks.

And for the final piece of exciting news...I bought some Beyerdynamic DT770Pro headphones to use while playing. I have a set of Ultimate Ears SuperFi5's but they make my head hurt after a long period of use. These are really comfy and sound great too, so I'll use my UE's for my workouts.


So exciting....But I gotta go get some sleep now, so seeya at the tables.

PS if youre going to the Viejas next weekend for their little $100k deal, let me know!

Sitting on the bubble sucks, especially when it pops. Lots of unfortunate events tonight, such as a full house losing to Michael Craig's straight flush (I was stupid for calling his all-in reraise when I had trip nines, the flop was three hearts - duh!), and then I flopped a straight and lost to a full house (he was correct for staying in the hand after I put in a normal bet, the board was dry but he did flop trips). I dont remember how the other one ended, but I think I played that one poorly too. So basically I went two hours deep in three tournaments and busted 10-20 spots out of the money. Not that my goal is to get ITM because the lower prizes are like drinking a cup of piss when youre out of water - you get a little out of it, but its definately not worth it, and the taste it leaves in your mouth isnt so great either. In most of the FTP guaranteed events its really not worth my time til the final table, so thats what I shoot for. All in all a pretty cooler day but a learning experience nontheless.

I noticed the late night doublestack is now PL which bums me out. Im seriously considering moving my roll, or atleast a chunk of it, to PokerStars. They off more good paying tournies at better times, and good satellites to boot. The only bad part is getting money in there is a royal pain in the ass, Im still waiting for my Epassporte account to be loaded. Its supposed to take place on the 21st so we'll see.

Tomorrow I decided to do some work in my kitchen, the pots and pans are everywhere in the cabinet and so are my storage containers and Pyrex stuff. When youre young and lazy you tend to ignore it, but I was trying to cook Rigatoni pasta tonight and had a hell of time finding what I needed. My house is cracking too, the foundation is cracked or something and the door jambs are moving, and so some of my doors dont shut properly. This is what I get for buying a house built in 1978 I guess. Its either going to fall down or get fixed, probably the latter even though I reallllly dont want to fork up the $$$ to get it fixed.

Wednesday is bull riding day. Im going to get on a few practice bulls to keep fresh. There is a PBR in Brawley California which Im going to enter, its nice to have one close to home. I tried to get in to the Salt Lake City event but I called too late. I think the PBR needs to get with the times and develop a computerized or even cellular entry system.

Anyhow, thats enough blogging for a few days. I do appreciate the comments on my other blogs, thanks to those who are reading my rants.

Out five minutes before the first break. On the second hand of the event I was dealt AKo, raised 3x and got two callers. Flopped top pair but there was a flush draw on the board, so I bet out the pot and got called again. Turn was a heart and I bet 3/4 pot and got reraised. From then on I was pretty much a cripple but I did fight back to roughly t3500. I was deal 99 back to back and picked up the blinds, and then a hand later I was dealt KK. I fired off my bet and got reraised by the big stack at the table who had been running nicely. I shoved and he insta-called and turned over AKo. I flopped a flush draw but he caught his ace in the process and sent me to the rail. A little bummed but those 10-12 hands I played were good ones and I got the money in nicely on that last hand. I spent $21 to potentially make $456,000 so no big loss. I have no problem losing if I played well because I cant control the outcome once I make a decision, no matter if it was corrct or not. All I can do is make those good decisions and in the long run I should have positive results.

Im pretty sure I found a coach for MTT's so hopefully I'll be able to step my game up a notch. I understand basic strategy but when we get to talking about squeeze plays, 3 and 4 betting, etc. Im pretty weak. I also need to work on developing ranges for my opponents and just pay better attention to the table. In addition to coaching Im going to be reading and reviewing a LOT throughout the week and playing the Guarantee events later in the evenings. Im basically in between projects at my real job so I have the week free to do what I want, and I seem to play better late at night.

I was saying a day or two ago that I might play the FTOP main event...Change the might to a for sure. I played a $10+$1 rebuy satellite. I didnt know it was a rebuy when I registered and when I found out I was pretty pissed because I hate rebuys dearly, especially ones with small buy-ins. I got down to 575 chips with 2 minutes left in the rebuy period and thought Id have to RB but I shoved in the right time and we went four way to the flop. My 97s went on to win (pair 9's, how lucky) and I was up to about t2500 going when the RB period ended. I added on and then just picked spots from there. Really stayed out of trouble and got my money in well every time. When we got to the final table the short stacks disappeared quickly. Six players all had between t35k and t50k which meant lots of stealing and lots of holding my breath. A couple of stacks got bled down and I was dealt AKo on the button when the 5th place player shoved. I called and he flipped over K5o. Soon after the 5th place player busted and I secured my seat while second in chips. After the break we had a flipament and I busted in third place, Ive never been happier with busting in third!

The main even will be the largest event Ive ever played. I have played a $100,000gtd event live but $2+million is insane. Im just going to play my best and whatever happens, happens. I just want to enjoy the experience. Good luck to those of you who are also playing!

What a long week its been. I think Ive played about 10-15 tournies, a couple of SNGs and like 40 hands of cash. Basically hit and ran in cash because a tourney started....Fornicated the canine in the SNGs, cashed a couple of them I think. Monday night/Tuesday morning I cashed in the $69+$5 $18,000gtd event, good enough for $2600 which was nice. I was considering withdrawing some to pay for my trip to Viejas for their $100k tourney but decided it wasnt neccessary. After that I played pretty shitty....I dont know why, I guess I didnt want to play or something. But I ended up donking out of a couple nice paying events and a few satellites. After that I requested my FTP account be locked for 24 hours so I could get away, clear my head, and come back fresh. In my 24 hours off I read and studied a ton, and watched all five of Matt Matros' videos from the $2600 buyin event at FTP. If you havent watched them yet, you need to get over to StoxPoker and check them out. I have played two events since then and cashed in both of them but the scores were pretty small, 50th out of 700-something players and 131st of 1339 players. I went out of the latter when I reraised all in with AKs and villain turned over AA. What can you do? I had QQ cracked by K10 earlier and it crippled me so I was pretty lucky to finish as high as I did. I got my money in great in most every situation and really felt like I played as well as anyone in the tourney, it just wasnt mine to win. Im stll reviewing all the hands I played, hopefully I can find some leaks and fix them.

I might play in the FTOPS main event this Sunday, I dont know. Thats a lot of money to throw at 6000 players, but when I play well I seem to run well so maybe I should go for it....Im going to study really hard in the next day, and I might not play any games from now til then. We'll see.