Looks Like We Made It! (August Review)

Whew. Again I managed to save my SNE status for one last time before it expires at the end of September...and this time I did it with 20 minutes to spare!

It's been the same old story for the last 4 months or so where I begin each month by taking two weeks off and then have to cram 50K VPP's into the latter half of the month. While this strategy has worked out (and the time off is amazing), it's far from ideal from a financial point of view and a balanced lifestyle perspective. In terms of maximizing profit, playing all of my volume in the last 2 weeks definitely hurts my bottom line. Most importantly, it's near impossible to stay on top of your A game when you're playing so much and when you're forced to play even when you're tired/don't feel like it etc. It's tough to stay focused and as I first experienced last December (when I was cramming hard to get SNE) and again at the end of last month, my play got sloppy and spewy. Sometimes it's hard to determine when you're playing bad or just running bad but especially this month I could tell that I was being abnormally spewy, although I was trying a few new experimental things in my game as well. Secondly, I think that last minute cramming has also hurt my bottom line simply because I've had to play in the games during the worst of times. I would normally not even bother playing when the games are bone dry but obviously that's not really an option when you need to make VPP quotas. From a balanced lifestyle point of view, 2 weeks on 2 weeks off also seems like a fail. The time off is great and I spent most of my time outdoors at the beach and at the gym but when it comes time to get up and play poker/rinse repeat...things aren't as wonderful.

Thankfully, I think that I will finally be able to break my habit in September. As I've blogged about before, I'm planning on playing 13 WCOOP events next month and I think that if I revolve my cash game hours around the tournament schedule I should have no choice but to avoid the last minute grind. I certainly have no desire to fire up a MTT and one-table for 6-8 hours or until busto...I'll almost definitely be playing 16-24 decent mid-stakes cash tables at the same time. First tournament(s) is on Sept.4 so I should get off to an early start of the month!

Anyways, before I get too far ahead of myself let's talk about August. The 107K hands that I played over the last couple of weeks were anything but consistent. After being down money over the first 40K hands I finally caught a mini heater and my profit shot up over the next 40K hands. After that, I gave a little bit back and stayed pretty much constant until the end of the month. Here's the graph:



August

$5,050.55 Table Winnings
$4,000.00 Cash Bonus
---------------------------------------
$9,050.55 USD

So I fell a little short of a 5-figure month but especially after the way August started (combined with the fact that I didn't hit a milestone this month) I can't be too disappointed. I feel like I played alright for most of the month-before spewing a bit at the end-but for the most part just let variance take me for a ride. I didn't feel that much control at the tables but hey, it's hard to feel invincible while playing poker.

Looking ahead to September, the one big thing on my plate right now is finding a new place to live! I had the chance to view a potential beauty today but with my poker schedule I just didn't have the time. I'm pretty confident that my buddy and I will find a place in a hurry now that we're both going to be way less busy for a little bit...for me, the sooner the better. It's been fine living at home, don't get me wrong-there are several perks. It's nice to be around my friends that are still in the area as well as my family...it's also nice to have better meals and cheaper rent :) However, school season is almost upon us and even though I'm not technically a student, I can justify creeping the campus bar based on the fact that a few of my good friends are still in classes. If and when I meet someone there, I will not be that guy who still lives with his parents!

I got a random text yesterday from a girl that was away for the summer but is now back in town. I can't remember exactly when we met but it was sometime earlier this year and it was fun hanging out but I think that I spent most of my time trying to convince her that I wasn't a douche after she read my blog or something. You know what, that's all I'm going to write about this in case she still reads it, lol.

I also got a random facebook add from a girl that I did not recognize based on her tiny ass profile pic (f u facebook privacy settings!) but from what I could tell she looked hot. I figured that she just added the wrong guy but thought why not and sent her a message when I was pretty drunk saying "Hooooows it goin? Don't think I know you?" Her response was "hey sorry i dont get on facebook much. we met downtown oo its been a while now. you gave me your facebook to add you. unless i have the wrong guy :p woops. hope not :( sorry
.." As soon as I read that flashbacks started filling my brain about what she was talking about...still can't be 100% certain she's got the right guy but now that I think about it I'm pretty sure that I remember where we were that night and saying that to her...and even if I'm not, I'm pretty good at pretending. Will keep you posted on developments.

Well, that's about it. I'm going to try and wake up at 7:30am tomorrow (1 time!) and hit the gym because I've got a busy day of house hunting ahead of me and I think I'm doing the Grouse Grind at some point. Hope you all had a good month, take it easy.

gl at the tables!