Played a half dozen or so tournies tonight as it's my first real night of no responsibilities. Started out decently well with me cashing the 1st 2 tournies despite building up a real big stack in one only to lose when guy raises AK in LP and real aggro guy on the button shoves. I know his range is huge and im well ahead so i over shove w/99. Original raiser as i said has AK, and the flop is clear but turn is a K and i lose a near CL pot.

Everything else basically involved me building up big stacks early and then blowing it late. Some was my fault some was coolers some suckouts. Had a few spots where i raised hands like ATo only for short stack to shove and im priced in to call and lose to QQ etc. Then plenty of the old AK < AQ and random race loses and i end the night with a moderate loss though nothing much. Just 1st time i finally get to play and i was really looking forward to it as i feel like my mind is in the right place thinking wise after some time off and when watching others play i've been finding myself able to easily think on multiple levels and at times this was happening today. I think once I get back to my apartment with my duel monitor setup etc, I will be able to really focus and I've already started working out a real high volume schedule which i'm planning on playing next month (around 150 tournies a week)

It's freaking impossible to make my family members understand poker. I went and visited with my grandparents, cousins, etc today and they were all shocked to hear about me playing poker (the ones who didn't know). The ones who did know still think its luck. Also if one more person says i must just count cards and then when i tell them "no you cant count cards in poker" they continue to argue with me about it. WHICH ONE OF US DOES THIS FOR A LIVING? DO I TELL YOU HOW TO BE OLD OR WHATEVER IT IS YOU DO!? NO!

I mean i love my family, but what sucks with them is that unlike other people I can just be like forget it and not bring it up, however these people are related to me and it's hard to explain when they already have their minds made up. It annoys the hell out of me. Atleast i should be getting some presents or something, i may be almost 22 but fuck it i still like getting presents under the tree

So there are 2 topics on the forums today that i found interesting. Let's start with the JJ thing. There is alot of controversy surrounding JJ and if he should be allowed to play, was his apology real or just a sham to get people off his back before the PCA, etc.

Basically i think he has done quite a few things that shouldn't be forgiven, yet at the same time he was young and foolish. I used to do alot of stupid shit and think i knew it all and i'm sure in 5 years i'll look back at this point in my life and think the same thing. The best thing JJ can do is reveal his accounts that he has played on, precisely how many tournies he multi-accounted and the amount won. He has to completely bare himself and expose his faults to the poker world in order to be forgiven, if he does this he can at least rebuild his reputation. He should also try and be as active as possible in the poker forums trying to help with hand analysis and remaining seen. His only other option is to stay reclusive ala ZeeJustin and just accept that those who dislike you are still going to and those who like you will like you more. You just cant have the best of both worlds.

Moving on to shaun deeb's 10k post which can be found here:

shaun deeb talks about high volume play and its EV

I think shaun makes a lot of really good points here. Playing a big volume can really help a player get in more hands and work on his game. At the same time, it helps with that mental aspect as youre likely to make more deep runs and final tables just by simply covering the variance so much quicker. This makes you not feel like crap because you havent cashed in a week. Another good thing he pointed out with playing some of the smaller buying tournies is that your edge is so huge that you can really feel it. This means you have more opportunities to really outplay and crush people which makes you feel just that much better.

Anyway if you haven't read what shaun posted i def suggest giving it a read. As far as things with me I've mostly just been playing small stakes cash and sng's just passing time while here at home, cant really put in the time with mtt's as my mom is constantly sending me on small errands and doesnt seem to understand that when playing tournies i cant leave, so i just skip the whole thing for simplicity's sake. Gonna see family and stuff next few days, which means no internet and dealing with a lot of redneck people i didn't realize i was related to.

so with nothing better, me and shaun deeb came up with a drinking game. Basically i would rail him in a single tourney, whenever he opened, it was sip from drink. When he 3 bet, its a shot, 4bet is a full beer. This game has exciting potential imo as if you and other person were doing it at same time with them railing you, it could be a WHOLE lot of fun. Toss in stuff for busting etc, who knows how drunk u could get along with the shit talking, its just alot of fun imo

So finally i rewrote the final part of my trip report. I'm sad to say it's alot less entertaining but it does let you know what all happened atleast. I do guarentee after rereading the first 2 parts though they are pretty damn entertaining imo