Phase 1: COMPLETE

Since taking the first two weeks off of July, the latter half of the month has been broken into two parts (which I'm going to call Phase 1 and Phase 2 for no particular reason). In between Phase 1 and 2 lies my weekend vacation up to my good friend (and recent financial advisor) JP's cabin, which serves as a nice break to get away from all of the poker and enjoy the hot weather. Well, after working for 6 days (4K VPP's per day), phase 1 is now in the books! I got off to super hot start where I ran very well and played equally solid for the first 4 days. Unfortunately, I have since cooled off and was brought down to Earth yesterday, though I still turned a small profit. Today was a pretty big disaster, however, and although I wasn't playing my A game I pretty much just got beat by the deck...just one of those days where I couldn't hold with a set vs. flush draw, a made flush vs. a set, flush over flush, cooler after cooler etc. All things considered, this month is off to a good start (feels funny saying that on July.21 lol) especially after comparing July's early results to June's (where I was actually down about $1700). Here's the graph:


Running Good

No-Limit Hold'em, $4.00 BB (8 handed)
MP1 ($149.25)
MP2 ($400)
CO ($314)
Button ($327.55)
Hero (SB) ($400)
BB ($400)
UTG ($183.50)
UTG+1 ($260)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 8, 7
UTG calls $4, 4 folds, Button calls $4, Hero calls $2, BB checks

Flop: ($16) 6, 9, 3 (4 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, UTG bets $8, Button calls $8, Hero calls $8, BB calls $8

Turn: ($48) 5 (4 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, UTG bets $20, Button raises $76, Hero raises $336, 1 fold, UTG calls $151.50 (All-In), Button calls $239.55 (All-In)

River: ($850.60) Q (3 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $850.60

Results:
Button had 6, 6 (three of a kind, sixes).
Hero had 8, 7 (straight, nine high).
UTG had K, K (one pair, Kings).
Outcome: Hero won $868.05

Running Bad

No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (8 handed)
UTG+1 ($391.40)
MP1 ($399.35)
MP2 ($281.70)
CO ($207.50)
Hero (Button) ($273.85)
SB ($209.90)
BB ($203)
UTG ($213.25)

Preflop: Hero is Button with K, K
1 fold, UTG+1 bets $5, 1 fold, MP2 calls $5, 1 fold, Hero raises $26, 3 folds, MP2 raises $95, Hero raises $247.85 (All-In), MP2 calls $173.85

Flop: ($555.70) A, A, 9 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: ($555.70) 2 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($555.70) Q (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $555.70

Results:
Hero had K, K (two pair, Aces and Kings).
MP2 had J, A (three of a kind, Aces).
Outcome: MP2 won $552.70

Anyways, this vacation couldn't come at a better time since I was feeling a bit off while playing today after logging a ton of hours this week. I'm heading up tomorrow around 5pm with my buddies Matt and Iain and am really looking forward to it. The cabin's right on a lake and we're bringing a boat up to do a bunch of water sports while we're not busy sitting in the sun doing nothing with a cold drink in hand. This trip used to be somewhat of a tradition amongst my core group of friends dating way back in the day but for various reasons most of us have been unable to make it for the last couple of years. Some of the best experiences of my life have been created from these trips, including crashing some random wedding along the beach, learning how to double wake-skate while drinking a beer, and perfecting the down-the-shirt boob grab with some random girl that I met at a drive-in movie on the hood on her car. Ah, memories.

Hopefully I return on Monday refreshed and ready for a busy week ahead of me to close out the month. I've earned 20K VPP's in July, which means that I'll need to earn 30K in 7 days when I get back-certainly attainable but difficult to say the least. Maybe my run-good will restart, which would be nice because the games have certainly seemed to be above average in quality as of late.

gl at the tables!