Super busy.....

I have been insanely busy as of late and I haven't had time to do any blogging. Not only have I not had time to blog I haven't had hardly anytime to play poker for about the last 17 days or so. Today was the first time I played any serious poker since then. I played live a few times with friends, but it was either really small limits or I was tired and played short sessions. I played for about 3.5 hours today and I ran well enough to win $1132 which was a nice way to return.

Even though I haven't played much poker lately I have learned some stuff about poker during that time. Mainly, you can't force a rush and monetary goals can do as much harm as they can good. I recently set a lofty goal of winning $20K in 2 weeks and I started out on fire and was on pace to do so. I ended up not even getting close to my goal and I am not even really sure how much I lost back from my peak of being up around $12,500, but I know it wasn't good. I tried to play higher and got really reckless with the amount of tables I was playing considering the stakes that I was playing. I believe I play well enough to beat 5/10 and 10/20 NL online, but I am either not comfortable enough or don't play well enough to beat those limits when I am playing anymore than 6 tables at a time. It is probably pushing it to be playing 6 tables of those limits, especially when I was trying to mix in some 25/50 as well. When you are winning you feel invincible and don't even notice the deterioration of your play by playing two tables. It takes some discipline to realize this type of stuff and isn't fun to admit.

I feel really fresh right now since I have had so much time off from poker, but I am going to take it slow and limit myself to playing no more than 6 tables at a time and I am going to start out playing mostly 2/4 and 3/6 NL until I win 15-20 buy-ins at those levels. Only then will I start to mix in some 5/10 games, but I am going to try to keep it at a maximum of 6 tables for the time being. I think I can focus more on playing differently against specific players and pick up on some spots that offer value that I miss when playing 8+ tables. Taking away two tables will really lower my hands played per hour, but I think it can be made up for with a higher win rate.

So, during my time away from poker I:

• Went home for a buddy's wedding.
• Ate like a pig at the fall festival
• Flew back to Vegas to caddy for Jeff
• Picked up Matt to have him stay with me
• Picked up Brian and Jason to have them stay with me
• Dropped off Matt
• Dropped of Brian and Jason
• Didn't have one minute of time to relax
• Ate out every single meal
• Bought two new fish for my tank.
  
• Played pit games about 10X more than I did poker
• Went out to clubs about 4 times (4 more than I told myself I would ever go again in my life).
• Stayed out late about 90% of the nights (past 2am) as the only sober person.
  

It was a busy few weeks and I am very much looking forward to getting back to work.

Edit: I know alot of people that read my blog follow Jeff's progress too. Fyi, he had an appendectomy on Monday and is most likely out for the season. There is an outside chance he could play in the last tourney of the year. It sucks because he was 123rd on the money list and will surely be passed during the last 3 tourneys of the year while he sits out. He will still retain sis top 150 status, but it is a pretty big deal to be in the top 125 compared to the top 150. I am pretty bummed about it, but nowhere near as bummed as Jeff is.