I only had one cash in the FTOPS, but I played a very small schedule. I finished 46th in event 19 (out of some 2200-odd). A deep run that I couldn't quite sustain until the end. Disappointing, but tournaments usually are.

So it's back to the heads-up. I'm still playing this on the regular, though I had a tough session today (lost two flips for stacks and two other stacks where I got the money in as a big favorite). Nothing you can do about running bad, although I don't think I had my A-game today. Again, focusing on bringing that every time is vital to my progress as a player.

It seems like I'm moving in the right direction, though, and it's just going to be a work in progress as I work to maintain the discipline full time and continue to plug leaks. The goal is to play perfectly all the time; I will probably fail, but as long as I don't beat myself up over mistakes and continue to learn why things work and don't work, I will at least play well most of the time.

A little more in the next day or two as I have a couple of random thoughts.

the HU grind has been going okay. I've had a profitable run at it, at least, although I've also had a couple of sessions I should have quit sooner. Even so, my discipline is improving as I go. It's a process, of course, but I feel the more I play, the more my old instincts to play well return, and then I've been developing the discipline and patience to not spew stacks if I'm not winning as quickly as I would like to be.

I'm still not putting in as many hours as I'd like, and I think I'll have to restructure one or two things in my life to make that possible. For one, I don't really have a proper setup at present, and my laptop is on the fritz (again).

I sold some pieces to the FTOPS, so I'm gonna play some events in that over the next week. If I pop a big score, great.

Life is good; I'll keep updates coming as anything interesting happens.

Well, I haven't written in an extremely long time, and it's largely because I've been laying low, and partially because it's been a busy/crazy time outside of poker, and I haven't had much chance to play. We survived Hurricane Ike okay, but were without power for five or six days, and I had to miss part of the WCOOP. I came back in time to cash in the final two NL events, including the main. I took a little time off after that.

I've been playing heads-up, trying to pick up more and more hours of it as I rebuild my bankroll. It's been slow going, though. I've been pressing too much and getting myself stuck in bad situations. Getting into the flow of the game is crucial in heads-up; even if you feel a player has enough leaks that you should have an edge against him, so much is dictated by the action / reaction that if you're against the ropes, it's often best to just quit, or at least slow down and get your bearings, rather than press for a situation to make the money back. I've learned that the hard way; I've never been that good at the discipline that takes.

I've also been considering getting a backer for tournaments, playing more of them online, and heading to a few live tournaments as well. The variance is insane, but I'm too good at them to pass up the opportunity. I don't have enough money to play them on the regular right now (certainly not enough to play at the highest stakes where I'm a winning player), and not being able to fade the variance makes it tough to make the correct plays. As much as I prize being able to jump into whatever game is good, and being able to operate on my own schedule, I simply don't have enough money to effectively do that now, anyway. If I can make more getting backed than I can the other way, I owe that to myself.

I have something appearing in Cardplayer soon. I'll let you know when it comes out. I'll also put up a couple links to other things I've written or places I've appeared in the media. I'm pretty bad at self-promotion, but anyone reading this, I figured, would be interested in that sort of thing. (After all, what's a blog where the blogger has too much false modesty to tell you anything about himself, anyway?)

Back to the bankroll grind. I haven't had reason to be optimistic lately, but I'm going to keep trying.

Haven't posted in a while. Haven't played much or done anything of note. I've been throwing in short sessions of HU cash, to get my head back in the game. So far so good-- not great, but good; I am winning, although if I ran better and didn't make mistakes I would win more.

The WCOOP starts tomorrow and I'm selling action to as many events as I can (I can't afford the WCOOP right now). If you're interested, contact me and I'll give you the details.

Wow, apologies for taking so long in between posts. I thought I had written something last week.

I barely played any FTOPS events. I couldn't quite raise enough money, and I turned out to be too busy away from the tables-- I couldn't even make it out to Fresno. In short, my niece came to visit me about a week and a half ago; last week I went home to visit my family and have my permanent replacement teeth installed; and Saturday was my birthday. Between all of those things, it's left little time for poker.

I've started to feel better about my game, though. I'd been pressuring myself too hard to make money until recently, and it was affecting my play. I really relaxed and loosened up and I think it helped a lot. For example, I bubbled the Sunday Million this week, and on a pretty aggressive / questionable play, but I had also made a bunch of other aggressive plays that had worked and helped me build a big stack (in fact, before I busted, I lost a flip that would have put me top-3 in chips on the bubble).

I've been moving back to heads-up NL cash, as well, where I feel my edge is even more pronounced when I'm playing well. It fits my lifestyle better, too; tournament poker is a time commitment and very psychologically draining. Heads-up cash is easier to play in short sessions, which fits me because I value having flexible time. It's also more consistent than tournament poker (well, what isn't?), and since I'm spending less time on the road, I'm more interested in making my monthly nut than in a big score. I'll still play tournaments from time to time, when it's worth my while (the WCOOP I'll be selling action to, for sure), but I'm just not as interested in the grind these days. I'd rather hone my skills at a game that allows me to make what I need without too much work, and leaves me the free time to live the rest of my life how I want to live it.