Spring Break '09

I went to Acapulco for Spring Break and it was absolutely epic. The weather was amazing, the atmosphere was even better and I actually didn't spend that much money, which I am very proud of myself for. The clubs that we went to were gorgeous. The best one was called palladium, which is #5 in the world (I think). Here is a pic with the lights going crazy.

Poker is going well so far this month. I need to get in a ton of more hands, but I am learning a ton by watching some instructional videos and implementing some new wrinkles into my play. When I first started playing 6-max, I noticed that some regulars would actually follow me around for a couple sessions. That put a hurt on my self esteem a bit. Don't they know who I am? That got me thinking that I really didn't have this cash game thing down the way I thought I did. These new wrinkles in my game make me a much more difficult opponent to play against and makes me happy that I'm putting in the time to input new weapons into my aresonal.

I have been in some heated discussions lately on 2+2 where I get hammered by using some of these wrinkles. There is a preconceived notion in mediocre players minds that poker is supposed to played a certain way and people doing anything else must be wrong. I remember when I used to think that people shoving all-in with overs and an OESD were "wild". How could they put in all that money on a draw? It's ridiculous!?! lol. When people do not look at reasoning why people make plays and just compare play during a specific hand to how they would play it, they are doing a disservice to themselves and are actually hindering themselves from learning more about poker. The best thing about poker is that I keep learning something new about it.

My next blog post will be dedicated on poker math. I want to post some math stuff on some forums so I figured I would use this audience as a guinea pig.

PEACE

March Goals, Midterms, and Spring Break

I have been up all night studying for my International Money and Finance class (probably the most challenging material that I have come across as an Economics student at CMU).  To take a little break from studying, I decided to keep the 5 people who read my blog updated with my life.

Poker Goals

I'm first going to go over February goals.

Step up to NL25 and play 10-20k hands: This goal was met, but it took me longer than I wanted it to.

Step up to NL50 and play 10-20k hands: This goal was not met.  My success at NL25 was marginal at best with a big downswing in the middle of the month.  I am going to put in a ton of effort into my game over the next month and hopefully by the end of the month I will be able to jump up at least 1 level

Play 60-80 hours of Poker:  This wasn't met either.  I played around 35 hours in February.  It is definitely an improvement from January, but if I want to be at my goal for the summer I will need to pick up the effort of actual time spent on the virtual felt.

March Goals 

Step up to NL50

Play over 100 hours of poker

Post ALL interesting hands on 2+2 right after every session

Think of poker when away from the tables more

Find a coach to help me progress faster

Midterms

I had/have only had 2 midterms this semester, which is much less than my average over the last 5 years.  However, I had to write a paper for my writing for economists class and actually had to make a midterm for my poker class.  The poker midterm was straightforward and easy imo.  I didn't want anyone to stress out over this midterm because CMU is stressful enough as is.  

My first midterm was on Tuesday night.  It was for my business law class.  I think I did pretty well and hopefully make up for my subpar performances on the first 2 exams in the class.  My 2nd midterm is in ~4 hours.  It is an open note exam.  We are given quotes from the readings and have to identify them in the 10,000 pages of reading we have done so far, so don't think that this test is going to be easy because it is open note...

Spring Break

So I will be on my way to the airport at this time tomorrow to go on spring break to Acapulco.  I am super pumped about it and it should be an absolute blast to go party for 7 days straight.  Here are my 5 Keys to having a good spring break:

1. DO NOT GET SUNBURNT YOUR FIRST DAY

This is something that has happened to me on a couple of vacations when I was little.  After this happens, you are just miserable for 2-3 days.  Since I dropped ~$1500 on the trip, it would be like me lighting $400-$600 on fire.  I don't like lighting money on fire so I did 3 sessions in a tanning bed to prevent getting fried.

2. Drink a ton of bottled water

Due to the fact that I will be drinking alcohol a lot during the 7 days in mexico, it is important to hydrate whenever you are not dehydrating your body.

3. If you get lucky, make sure your roommates don't interrupt

The last time I went on spring break, a friend of mine had this happen to him.  He was enjoying himself with a lady friend and one of his roommates interrupted them.  He stood and faced the guy with only a helmet on.  The guy looked him over and responded and said "Sooooooo..." 20 second pause,  "Should I come back later?"

4. Friends have one "Save me from dying" card

This happened to me a couple times.  As soon as the person is lucid enough to listen, I inform them that if they are in the same situation again later in the trip that I will not being helping.  You must stick to this rule or you will be stuck being the mom of your friends for the whole trip.

5. Leave your pride at the border and just have fun

If you try to get in a dick swinging battle with every state school d-bag, you will not have fun.  Who cares who has the best definition in their 6-pack?  Dance a lot, drink a lot, and enjoy the scenery because when you get back from the 85 degree beach weather it will be ~15 degrees snowing and shitty.