The triumphant return of Xaston:

I took a real real nice day off yesterday. I hung out with the future Mrs. Xaston (it should be noted that we actually are not even dating so this is wildly wishful thinking) for a while. I went to her little brother's soccer game in the morning and then we went out for lunch. Unfortunately she had to go to work after that, but it was still a nice time. I had plans with a couple guy friends for the night but had some time to kill in between so I went and picked up one of my other friends and we visited Mrs. Xaston at work (Newport Creamery's) and got an awful awful and left her a comically large tip. I then picked up my other group of friends and we went out to my favorite sushi place. I had spicy tuna rolls, oyster katsu, and hamachi nigiri. The spicy tuna rolls and hamachi nigiri were not the best I've had there, but the oyster katsu tasted VERY fresh. I came home and read a little of Ace on the River and found out about the UB reload going on right now.

I slept nice and late today and watched my pats and sox get clobbered. Fuck. I read some more of Ace on the River and looked for The Theory of Poker. Uh oh. I think I left it at my mom's house, which means I'm gonna have to shorten my break. I decide that after having such a good day yesterday my mind would be nice and clear. I deposited $2000 on UB, giving me about $850 in total bonus, and hopped on a $10/$20 heads up table and $10/$20 Omaha/8 table. I got no hands at the omaha table and lost $40 before leaving to focus on the heads up table, where a poor gentlemen made the big mistake of sitting down with Xaston. Seriously, why would you play heads up limit with Xaston? You might as well bang your head against the wall, punch yourself in the nuts, and give me 20 big bets. Anyway we played for a good while with some back and forth but eventually I got the best of him. He also did some fairly heavy tilting every once in a while. He didn't 3 bet from the big blind enough at the beginning and probably a bit too much at the end. He called too many flop check raises only to fold to my turn bets. I had a pretty good read on him and felt I had him completely outclassed. However after about 2 hours my dad and his wife came home (they were away for the weekend) and I figured I had already booked a nice win so I decided to leave the table and go greet them. In retrospect it was probably a bad move, that guy was pretty bad and tilting, and kept reloading. I had a good read on him, I think I should have stayed and looked to make a bigger score, but that's ok, I don't mind missing out on profitable situations in an effort to balance other parts of my life. Poker is not my life, and I don't want to let it become that. I want it to be my job, but a job I love, but NOT my whole life. I ended up taking him for $1149 and cleared $21 in bonus. Things are looking up.

Good stuff dood. I took a few days, and it helped me refocus, i think.

HU on UB is where the mighty xaston may be found, eh?

Im comin for ya........

1 hour more of $10/$20 2-7 triple draw. $109. Cleared a whopping $3.40 in bonus. Wow. I am never going to clear all $800 of this.

I lost $103 in an hour and a half of 2-7 triple draw last night, and also lost $109 entering a tournament. I did pretty good for quite a while but had 2 unfortunate hands in a row that knocked me out with about 50 people left (30 moneyed)

Thanks to the suggestion from Piers I have decided to read 1 book a week. I've always considered myself intelligent and I don't want to stop gaining knowledge simply because college wasn't working for me. Book suggestions welcome, the following are being considered.

Fiction:
Cat's Cradle
Slaugherhouse Five
Breakfast of Champions
The Catcher in the Rye
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Non-Fiction:
The Elegant Universe
In Search of Schrodinger's Cat
Six Easy Pieces
Six Not So Easy Pieces
QED

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell if you haven't already read it is a great read.

Fiction: Notes from underground, by Dostoyevsky. Bonus Dostoyevsky reading: The Gambler.

NonFIction is a little tougher. MAybe thus spoke zarathustra by Nietzsche? Thats always a fun one, and certainly a challenge for someone who wants so engage in some 'intelligent' reading.

I deposited on Interpoker so I could get the $100 bonus while I'm setting up my intertops account with rakeback.

I played an hour at 3 $10/$20 shorthanded tables and 1 heads up $10/$20 table.

Right off the bat I was down about $800. I made a nice comeback and was up a few hundread until the dolt I was playing heads up with starting getting comically lucky. He literally called my flop check raise, turn bet, and river bet, with jack high with a bad kicker no less. He was so bad. He'd have like J2 on a KQ2 flop and I'd have Q9 and he'd say to himself "I got a pair of 2s, where in the hell am I going?" and just nail a deuce on the river. It was pretty ugly. I really think I should play more heads up limit though, because I really think I could make good money if I played it more, and it's really fun. Total damage: $356.75