Even a beaten man can still ride a bike....

So, I worked SUPER hard this month to climb out of the hole I started off in and even harder to overcome the terrible luck I had as well. It looks like poker is going to win and I am going to lose this month, because even though I still have a few days left in the month I won't be able to play because I will be traveling. I started off down about $7500 within the 1st two days of the month and I made it my personal goal to get winner by the end of the month no matter what it took. However, this is a difficult task when I seemingly ran under expectation every single day! I made a valiant effort and if I count rakeback I actually did have a winning month.


I ended up losing $884 (I also made about 2400 in rakeback) playing poker and ran about $13,000 below expectation for the month. There is nothing that can be done about that and it doesn't mean anything will be turning around in the future, but it sure doesn't seem fair. Actually, it is fair, because I have run good in the past. However, that doesn't make it seem any more fair!

That being said, I feel really good about my game and I am fully expecting a fantastic May....one where I do something crazy like win every day or put some crazy long stretch of winning sessions together. I haven't done that in a while and I feel like I am poised to have one of these runs.

So poker has left me a beaten man after the month of April, but in some good news some things are just like riding a bike and I proved that I can still bowl decently even after not having bowled in a year or so.

Me, Anne, Matt, Jeremy, Adria, Len, and Luchie went to Olive Garden for dinner and to Red Rock to bowl afterwards. Somehow I managed to bowl a 185 and a 210. I started off with a gutterball and everyone had a good laugh, but I got the last laugh :) Bowling seemed pretty easy tonight...the guy in the lane next to us suggested that I should join a bowling league because I was so awesome. Ok, I made up the awesome part, but he really did suggest I join a league. I am pretty sure this was his weak attempt to recruit me for his team. Sorry Charlie, I've got poker to play and can't be bothered with bowling for 30 weeks in a row or however long those crazy leagues are.

Its 8am and I have to get to bed....we leave for home tonight at 12:45am and I have to do some stuff to get ready to leave once I wake up. Nighty night!

Not much to report...

I haven't blogged in a long time, because it is no fun blogging about doing nothing special. Poker has been really slow for me lately. I have been running poorly (both in EV and in cooler situations), but continuing to work very hard on my game. It is pretty disheartening to put so much effort into it without getting the same return I would like to see. I know the games are much tougher now than they used to be, but as much attention as I put into game selection I should be winning at a much higher rate than I am. Oh well, more hard work and staying focused will end up solving the issue eventually so that is what I intend to do.

While there haven't been any poker successes to write about lately it is the time of the year that makes me feel most like a professional poker player....tax time. I went yesterday to get my taxes done and I'll be sending them off tomorrow. While I hate having to pay taxes it does make me feel pretty good about myself for having done so. It seems like people always want to know how you decide when you are a professional poker player. I think that a pretty definitive answer to that question is if you pay taxes as a professional poker player then you are one. If not, you aren't. If you do pay taxes as a professional poker player and continue to stay in action then I would say you are wildly successful. Think about how much of a rake that is to overcome! First you pay actual rake and then the government rakes what is left...that hardly seems fair. So even though I haven't been doing as well as I would like, I can hold my head high knowing I have paid my taxes and I am still plugging away.