I was able to pull off another winning week. Yahoo. It took until Sunday after some horrible play, but I did make it. The biggest help was patience. By taking some time away from the game, I was better able to play when I was there. This is the "less is more" phenomenon. By constantly playing, I get complacent. If I pull back and get balance in other aspects of my life, I seem to be able to focus better on playing. This probably has carryover in other aspects of life as well.

I have been practicing my casting with my new fishing reel. I love it!!! I am getting much better and can actually cast pretty backlash free now. I think I will use this reel as my main reel when I go to Canada. I will spool my ultra-light with 6-pound test and my Cardinal with 18-pound test. Now I need to pack my tackle box. I will take my other spinning reel as a spare, but I will not string it. I have some Spiderline that I will take, just in case.

I stayed up late playing poker last night and could not get up for my workout today. I did make some money last night, so it wasn't a total lost. But, I slipped back into playing poorly this week, making calls that I know I shouldn't have, so I needed the win. I am down 12 for the week, so I should be able to make it back. An interesting hand that I will dissect here is one from at SNG I played last night. We were 3-handed and I was the chip leader by alot. I raised on the button with 99. The small blind went all in for about 2k. I had about 7k left and I made the call. I think at this point I made a mistake. I was in a commanding position and could have let the other two fight it out for second and third place. What could this guy have to go all-in against the chip leader? An A, a pair, two Broadway cards. Against an unsuited ace, I was about 70% to win. Against an unsuited ace with a J, I was only 56% to win. In any case, this may have been a marginal call. I was probably only slightly more likely to win than in a coin-flip and given my chip-lead, I should have just folded and let him fight it out with the other guy. I went from chip-leader to out in third.

I am getting ready for my trip to Canada. I bought a new bait casting reel. The last time I went to Canada I bought one that did not work so well. I have never used one, and my spinning reels work quite well, so I don't know exactly why I bought it. It just goes to my competitive nature. I want to be able to use a casting reel. Anyway, the new reel is fantastic. The braking mechanisms and anti-backlash features work like a charm. I was able to cast pretty good last night during a practice session. I will take it to a lake sometime soon to see how it works on water. In the meantime I will keep using it in the yard.

Less may be more

Ever since I returned from the beach, I have been concentrating on improving the balance in my life. Basically, I have been spending more time on my priorities instead of fritting away as much time playing online poker. As a result, I have actually been winning. I think I can attribute this to better thinking while I am playing. Instead of being bored or distracted, I am able to concentrate on the task at hand. Mainly, I am concentrating more on the probable contents of my opponents hands. Of course, this all could be normal variance, but I like to think I am playing better.

I now intend to keep this focus thing going to improve the other important areas of my life. I have just purchased "Getting Things Done". I plan to work through that book to help me make further improvements in my life.

I took the wife out for her birthday dinner. We went to our favorite local restaurant. The meal was great, as was the service and the company. We had such a good time, we got carried away with the wine, as my wife is prone to do. The sex afterward was fantastic. I missed my morning workout though. I was supposed to wake up and do fight gone bad. There is always tomorrow.

I am making some positive steps toward leading a more productive life, I just need to tighten my discipline. I will be reporting on that in the coming weeks.

In poker I have been running well this week. My results are mostly positive. The layoff did me wonders. The thing that I am doing now that I was not before my break, is just playing better. I am making better decisions because I am taking my time and thinking. I think about what my opponent likely has. Before my vacation, I was playing too much and I was distracted while playing, so I was not paying attention. Hopefully this weekend I will add some winnings to this week.

On the fitness level, I made it to they gym 3 times. Not great, but not bad. I will shoot for 4 times next week and attemp all cross-fit WOD's. If I can ride this weekend, I will consider it a good week.

After a long break, I am back to the blog.

After my massive poker tilt, I took some time off, over a week. My play has gotten better as while I was off, I thought about poker, I just didn't play. I have seen the error of my ways. Let me just see if I can continue.

On the job front, there is not much new. This place gets more dysfunctional and I get more desparate to get out, but I still do not have anything concrete to get me out. I have recently talked to Richard and I meet next with his CPA to get a better understanding of the business, so I think it is moving, albeit slowly.