School's Almost Out...

And I couldn't be more excited about that. This quarter has been absolutely brutal, and I am very happy that I put my head down and fought through it. I got an A- in my 385 class, meaning I don't have to take the final which is awesome. Right now I have a B+ in my 307 class including a D on a test, and the final is optional and can't hurt my grade so if I can manage a B, I should be able to scoop an A in that one too! In my 306 class, I am still waiting to hear what I got on my second test. I got an A on the first one, so if I got an A on the second one, I also wouldn't have to take the final which would be awesome.

So if things go well in the next couple of days, I should be able to pull somewhere around a 3.6-3.7 which would actually raise my cum. GPA. This was completely unexpected but something that I have really worked hard to accomplish. I have learned so much about economics this quarter that it is amazing. When I look back at how I struggled through intro to micro and macro and now to see where I am at now, it is quite amazing. Now that I got 3 core classes done, I will only have one more major theory class left, econometrics (which will suck).

As far as poker goes, I obviously have not been playing as much as I would like. Being a MTT player makes it really hard to try and squeeze some play in between studying. It is so hard to turn down such equity, knowing that I can probably make somewhere between 15-20/hour simply playing $20-$30 MTT's, knowing my ROI. As soon as this week is over, however, I will have about a month off until my summer session starts with little to nothing major to do.

I am going to try and get in somewhat of a healthy routine over the next month, which might be tough. My goal is going to be to wake up every day and hit the gym before I play online. With good tournies starting at 11 and 12, I may have to try and get on a normal sleeping schedule which is close to impossible during the summer imo. I would like to build up my online roll enough to be able to comfortably play $100 MTT's, meaning I would have to keep about $5k in my account. I currently have about $3k in there after withdrawing $600 on Friday.

Speaking of Friday, I went home on Thursday night and hung out with Derek that night. The next day I went home and hung out with my mom for the afternoon which was pleasant. We took our two dogs to a place called Soggy Doggy in Des Moines, which is a self-service dog-washing place. I was given Riley (the smaller one), and he hated the idea of being bathed so much that he jumped out of the tub and was hanging by the leash that he was on. In a very motherly-manner, my mom rescued him and put him back in the tub.

Later that day, I played in the $30 deep stack on UB. I got lucky early when I ran AK into KK for a big pot on a final board of xxxAx. I cruised to the final table, then got HU and obv ran KK into AA (lmao!). I can vaguely remember one other time that I ran KK into AA hu in a sng, but for it to happen at the FT of a MTT is just sick. I took second for like $350 which was okay.

That night, Derek and I went to Wizards to play in their $5-$40 spread game, which they obv never got going. So instead I decided to dump $160 playing 4-8 then $25 more at the pai gow tables on the way out. We decided to go back to his place and play some late-night MTT's. I ft'd the $50 $10k guaranteed but was unfortunate to re-ship A9 behind the super agro chipleader's raise, and he woke up with AA, good enough for 7th place and $450 :( I also ft'd the 10pm $20 6-seat but played absolutely awful there and took 5th for like $150.

I have found myself tilting a little bit more as of late, especially when I multi-table. In a FTP tourney the other day, I had over 100k in chips with 12 left and was like 2nd in chips. I got re-raised a couple times and lost a couple small pots then just blew up and ended up finishing in 12th. It is stupid because I am aware that I am doing it when it happens, and I tell my friends who are railing that I am blowing up, but I do not do anything about it. I am going to try super hard to try and stay focused, especially when I am late in MTT's, as going off in one has adverse effects on other tables as well.

This blog has gone really long, but I would like to say congrats to my friend Grant who ft' d the Sunday 200 on UB last week, good for $8500. It has been really fun to watch him get better and use extremely good br management to grind his way up to over $1k. He then got in on for $20 via a satellite and played really well during the tournament.

On that note, I have some studying to do for my macro test tomorrow, so hopefully I go do the whole pwn thing and get an A in the class.

More blog posts to come in the future!

God Bless,

JG