After some hassles with a bank that has a dim view on shipping to a different address than the billing address, the order should go through today and I'll have a new one in time to start updating when stuff goes down again.

Conveniently enough, I had a vacation scheduled these few days already. I've been utterly refusing to play poker, and it feels good. My brain needed a rest, and I clearly needed to stop pressuring myself so much to win.

Sunday's results were nothing special (651st in the million, 8th in the 215 HU), but overall a profitable day, and more importantly, I had mentally reminded myself to keep attacking, to not shy away from big pots, to not fear busting out, and I feel my play, at least initially, was much better as a result. I wasn't able to maintain the same level of play throughout the day, but getting off on the right foot felt good.

Anyway, it's more rest until the $5k shorthanded at the WSOP on Thursday. I pretty much have to play my best to give myself a chance in that, so... I'll try to do just that!

Apologies for no updates the last few days. I've been out of communication because my laptop-- which was already my backup laptop, broken keys and prone to fits and starts-- finally stopped taking a charge, and thus for all intents and purposes no longer functions. This may be fixable, and as soon as I get some money offline from Saturday's scores, I'll likely buy a new one.

On top of that, my iPod inexplicably gave up the ghost a couple of days ago. So now I have no music and no reliable source of communication with the Internet world. This is a little difficult for me.

I'm making it, though. I still have my blackberry (when it doesn't run out of batteries). It's just hard for me to post unless I can sneak onto someone's laptop long enough to do that. Usually this means someone has made it deep into a live tournament, though, so they don't mind.

Anyway, updates will be sporadic until I get a permanent means to update. Meantime, nothing exciting has happened. The $2500 shorthanded was a disappointment, as was today's $1k at Bellagio. I did go swimming and disc golfing with some of the guys yesterday, though, so at least I'm doing what I can to stay well-rounded and healthy.

Might play the $2k at Bellagio tomorrow; might play the $1500 at Rio Saturday. There's nothing really big to gear up for until the $5k shorthanded on Thursday, so 'til then it's a matter of finding the best value on any given day, and keeping my head in the right place.

I'm leaving for the WSOP on Tuesday. I'm getting there a little late, but I wasn't quite ready to go. I had to finish some things at home, not to mention get myself ready.

I've been playing little poker in the last week, but I've been embarking on a more general crusade to get myself (and keep myself) physically and mentally sound for the series. I feel like, at this point, I'm playing pretty well, and have a good idea and understanding of what to do in given situations, so now it's a matter of keeping myself in game shape so I can have the stamina and patience for long sessions of live poker, and be mentally sharp and aware of all the information being transmitted.

I'll be putting in about a dozen events there, after which I'll be back home, resuming a (relatively) ordinary life.

Oh: I had my first coaching session a few days ago. I thought it went pretty well, although I was unfortunately unable to find too many interesting spots to use as examples. Anyway, I'm going to be slowly expanding that over the next few months, which will bring in some consistent, variance-free income-- always a good thing.

I'll be keeping this updated from Vegas as regularly as I can.

Well, April has been, among other things, hectic and bizarre, so if you're wondering why I haven't written in a long time, you'll have your answer soon.

The end of March and early April was spent locating and moving into our new house. The short version of this story is that I've been looking to settle back into Houston for a few months now-- I've had no real permanent home for a long while, and wanted a day-to-day life that was more stable and where I spent more time with my friends. With some luck and some work, I landed a house I had my eye on and moved in with a couple of friends. It's beautiful, in my part of town, and not too expensive (although furnishing it hasn't been particularly cheap).

Of course, this would be taking up enough of my time until now weren't it also for the series of absurd events I encountered. I got two flat tires after I returned from Seattle, and then I had a week where, in succession, my laptop was stolen, I was hit by a car while on foot, and I got a third flat tire.

I'm okay. (I weather storms well.) But I haven't had time for anything, and unfortunately, "anything" included playing the Five Star and WPT Championship at Bellagio. I had to cancel those plans; I'm going to have to wait until the World Series to play live again, probably. Too much to do and not enough time (not to mention I would have needed a few days of rest for my body and mind before going out there). In the meantime, I expect to play online and spend more of my free time working on a couple of poker-related projects. (There's always something on my plate, and I never have time to finish it all. I'm the guy who goes to buffets and accidentally gets three times more than he can eat because it all looks so good.)

I've dabbled in a little online play the last couple of weeks but haven't gotten back to seriously playing. That'll change once I finish setting up the new house and my office area. How domestic of me.

Sigh. I just wrote a really long entry detailing my upcoming plans and lost it when I had to re-log in. Note to self, write long entries in a Word document first. Here's another go, albeit shorter and more succinct:

So I apologize for not writing sooner-- time has, indeed, been flying. I haven't been doing anything poker-related; in fact, the last week has been a complete party, which would be irresponsible if I hadn't budgeted my schedule for it well in advance of the LAPC.

I'm going home for a few days, though, to rest, relax, and see my family. After that, I'm hitting the road again.

First comes the last leg of my vacation: I'll be in Seattle; I need to visit a few people there, and I found a couple of good concerts to go to as well. I've never been, and I'm pretty excited.

After that comes business. I've got to start planning for it and finding the backing, but I intend to go to WPT Foxwoods in April, and possibly the WPT Championship afterward, if I'm playing well and feel like I should (can) stay out on the road.

After that there won't be any live poker until the WSOP, but I want to use some of that time to set up some non-playing poker-related ventures, which an awkward way to phrase "coaching, videos, and writing strategy articles". I think I'd be pretty good at all of those, and I'll have the time to set them up right; not to mention, keeping involved will keep me mentally sharp until the Series.

It'll probably just start out from here, but I'd like to get an article or two published somewhere, and get the coaching and videos to bring in some income (obviously).

But that's down the road. Right now, I need some rest. After that comes the visit home, more rest, and the business-side planning for Foxwoods and Bellagio.