Sorry for the hiatus, and if there are any readers still around, I'll just say this; let's get started, shall we?

"Relocation"

It's not so much of a relocation, really. My roommates and I need a change of scenery to a place in Minneapolis that isn't quite so quiet. I really enjoy people watching,trying to figure out what's running through their messed up brains, so that's a main reason that I'd probably enjoy B&M poker more than I do online play. I have yet to make it to Canterbury, though. To not stray from the topic heading, I think I've finally found an apartment in a neighborhood that's chock full of crazies and interesting people for me to watch. After I move on October 1st, and the weather starts to turn a little worse, I'll be back in full force, online at least. It was weird for a bit there, because I thought I'd simply started to bore with poker, but that couldn't be further from the truth. I took an unintentional week break, and started back in with games such as Omaha and Stud, and that's helped my interest in Hold 'em return.

With that out of the way, I can talk about the poker that I have been playing.

Home Games:
I blame the weather for not hosting a home game in over a month, because I'd rather be oot and aboot than sitting all night. I did, however, play in one game that was hosted by a coworker of a friend of mine. $25 buy-in, NLHE. The odd thing about it was that, though it was No Limit, they decided to use a Limit betting structure. Preflop and on the flop, the minimum bet was, of course, the BB. When it got to the turn and the river, though, the minimum bet was 2xBB. That doesn't seem right, does it? I don't play much limit poker, so it took a little getting used to. It also would've helped if they had adhered to that rule, but from time to time, somebody would throw out an underbet on the river, and seeing that I was an outsider, it was better to keep my mouth shut.

The game was about 35 miles south of Minneapolis, so I was happy that we started at 4pm, instead of later in the night. I wish that I could take game notes like Pauly, but the first game doesn't need exact details. I'll try my best, though. First hand, I fold. And then for the next 35 hands, I continued folding . I got, at most, one playable hand the entire tournament. It's tough to win when you only have one hand that you deem worthy of throwing in for the SB, let alone a full bet. I'd like to argue that it was just because I playing was too tight, but when the best starting hand you see in an hour and a half is Q9o, that argument is a little weaker. For the few cards I did get, I lasted much longer than I should've, especially considering I didn't win one pot. Not one. I busted out 5th/10. My buddy won the first tournament, for a $140 profit, all while being the only drunk person in the room. I even took Felicia's advice and didn't drink while playing. Harumph.

We finished the first tournament in a little under 3 hours, so everyone wanted to play again. Being crapped on by the deck in the previous tourney left me a little unsure, because spending another $25 for something you're not having fun playing, just isn't worth it. Luckily, Jeremy said that he'd bankroll me, and that made me feel worse for needing a backer to play in a $25 home game. My mood shifted for the better when I started getting some cards, and for most of this tournament, if I wasn't chip leader, I was close to it. The blind structure was a little too steep for my liking, and I found myself fighting on the bubble, but finally busted out 3rd and got my buy-in back.

For the night, I was down $25, and for getting little to nothing to work with in the first tourney, I can't complain. My buddy was the big winner of the night, +$190, and he needed it because he blew a hole in his radiator on the drive, and we were lucky to make it to my apartment without his engine going "Kablammo!"

Online play

I haven't played much online lately, and my bankroll has been very, very bipolar. Up $125 one day, and down $75 the next. Up, down, up, down and never really getting over that proverbial hump. Both of my bankrolls are admittedly very thin, and I've been lax in studying like I should. I've slacked from using Pokertracker, and unless I restart studying my own play, I'll never get any better. Speaking of Pokertracker, does anyone know how I can delete just my notes? I'd like to keep the notes collected on everyone I've played, but requesting hand histories from Stars and Party has been spotty at best, and it doesn't do me any good to study the data on my own play because it's so incomplete. Anyone?

WCOOP
Holy hell, I'm missing the boat. Watching these tournaments just adds to the amazement I've already gained regarding the amount of money tossed around all willynilly in the online poker community. Who doesn't dream of getting that one big payday of $90k? I know I most certainly do. It doesn't do me any good to try and qualify for an event now, because the only super sats available are the 50FPP and 500FPP. The 50FPP only "pay" 2 spots into the next satellite, which doesn't make it worth my time to try, and I haven't been playing enough on Stars to have the 500FPP necessary to play in the higher supers.

Next year is mine.

Sorry for posting in snippet form. I wish I had more to say right now, but it's Friday, and I've been awake since 5:30 in the am, and very much in need of a nap. I've had a fairly decent(for me, at least) entry about the "poker mindset", and how it drifts into my life outside of the cards, but I need some time(read; motivation) to slap it out into digital form.