Okay, actually one more post before I begin my thoroughly misspelled hiatus. I think I mispelled miss...how the fuck many s's are in that fuckin word? First person to respond and tell me wins $10, dead serious.

Anyway, having reread my post, I've decided that I need to preempt a likely Monkesque response by clearing stating that:

(1) The reason for the hiatus in question has NOTHING to do with donkeys

(2) For that matter, said hiatus is not related to ANY form of beastiality in general.

(3) Nor does it have anything to do with homoerotic sex.

(4) Masturbation does not figure largely into my upcoming journalistic-absence.

(5) and, for the last time, IT WAS A FUCKING MULE!

Thank you,

-TW

Its "Misspelled" - looks weird though but that's it.

Hmmmm. Interesting! You got an empire account, Bri, or you gonna make my life difficult?

-TW

nope, just stars, party, full tilt and GC

Well then bugger you, you aren't gettin your 10 bucks till friday!

-TW

but I need it to pay the rent!

It was all good until one of the last paragraphs where the start didn't grab my attention. Work on that.

However, congrats on the good month and just don't look at it like it could have been much more because it still was successful.

Thanks for the responses, guys! Bri, I apologize for the slip-up; you'll note that I fixed it to improve the readability. BK, big-time thanks for the encouragement! Semper, definitely a GDFI. I think padding the ol' HBCKWWZ is DEFINITELY the WTG TW.

Just gotta finish up session #2 for the day, then I'll post the results!

-TW

Ugh. Well, I really wanted to get my month off to a good start, but it just wasn't to be today. Here's the numbers.

Hours played...5:24
End result...+$2.00

Yeah, you read that right. Two fucking dollars. I played 3 hours this afternoon, and honestly think I played the best poker of my life. Wound up 80 bucks ahead, cool! Then, during my evening session, I was pretty much floating between break-even and 20-30 bucks up, when in about 15 minutes, the following ugliness occured:

QQ ran into AA
AK made TPTK on a completely uncoordinated flop, and lost to a set of 2s
TT loses to 88 when an 8 comes on the turn.
JJ loses to Q8 when he makes trip 8s on the river.
AQ makes top two pair, but loses to a rivered gutshot.

Between that dizzying array of second-bests and ugly beats, I lose just about all my winnings for the day. The only bright side is that I had the good sense to shut down the tables rather than continue playing in what had become a blind rage.

As I said, I feel I played better today than I have in almost a month. Wish I had more than two bucks to show for it, but I guess there's always tomorrow.

-TW

In the now-immortal words of the Kool-Aid man, "Oh, YEAH!"

Hours played...5:26
End Result...+$480.00

Now that's more like it! It's been far too long since I've had one of those "special" days where (a) I played good poker, and (b) the cards didn't fuck me up the whatsit. Sure, there were a couple bad beats...of course, I also inflicted a few myself, so that was a bit of a wash

The day started off crummy, and I was about $150 in the hole after the first hour...but fortunately, I was able to maintain focus, not go on tilt, and battle back to have a truly wonderful session...and by jimminey, it feels great! I haven't checked, but I'd say it's probably been at least three weeks since I've had this good a day. I'm also almost on track as far as my 40-hour goal, but I will have to break the fearsome 6-hour barrier a few times to make it.

In another thread, Ice expressed some surprise that us "pros" have so much trouble booking a 40-hour work week...and on the surface, it does seem ridiculous. When I had a full-time job, there were weeks when I'd work 60+ hours and still manage to put in about 30 at the tables. And now, 25 seems to be a struggle!? I suppose I sort of empathize with KennyG, that poker seems a lot less fun when it's your sole source of income...but at the same time, I definitely still enjoy playing. I realize this paragraph did nothing to explain why it's so tough to get in the hours...so...ummmmm...yeah.

I think I'm also starting to realize from recent sessions that I'd be well-advised to begin every session, say for the first hour, a lot tighter than I'd like. It seems that it generally takes me about that long before I have the focus and confidence to start making the right decisions in marginal situations, e.g. blind-play and LP raises with weak holdings. But once I've played for a bit and have gotten up a bit, I think I do very well in these spots. Come to think of it, that may have been part of the reason for my slump.

Early in March, I was quite the little card-rack. I'd almost always get off to a rockin good start, I'd get a lot of good hands...and thus, my confidence level was high and I could get away with throwing in some extra hands. But when the cards went bad, I still kept entering the same tricky situations, without the benefit of confidence in my reads. That's why it's probably a good idea for me to only open up my game once I'm doing well to begin with.

ANYWAY, it's time to go get drunk...fortunately, for a nice change of pace, it'll be more of a "victory celebration" getting-drunk than the "drowning away of my sorrows" that had become a staple of my measly, pathetic life in weeks past.

Happy Saturday, all!

-TW

Thanks for the reply, Kenny. It's always nice to hear from someone who's in the same boat as far as the struggle to book hours...though granted, I'm a bit of a newcomer to the boat in question.

Not being able to play my best for 40 hours/week is definitely a concern; it's also possible that I will be able to play solid for 40 hours, but then feel burnt out afterwards! Neither one of these would be a good thing, so I think you're probably right that 30 might be a better number to shoot for.

Nevertheless, for this week at least, I really do want to hit 40 hours...if for no other reasons than that it's become some sort of milestone that I feel I need to reach. Hmmmmm...re-reading that last sentance, I really can't help laughing at the fact that I just referred to a 40-hour work-week as a "milestone." Heh heh, oh well, we already knew that I have as much work ethic as a five-month-old pile of roadkill, so I guess it makes sense.

Anyway, here's to making April our bitch...unless, of course, you're not willing to share

-TW