Updates- Solid AC Weekend (8.30.2010)

I was in Atlantic City again during the weekend.  This time a group of friends went so it was nice to catch up with everyone.  I ended up +$507 on the tables in just 11 hours.  My play schedule looked something like:

4:00-10:00 p.m Saturday:  6 Hours +$260

6:15 a.m- 8:15 a.m Sunday: 2 Hours $0 (break even)

1:00 p.m – 4:00 p.m Sunday: 3 Hours: +$247

I’m not going to complain about those results.  I took a massive suck-out during the 6-8 a.m session for a $300 pot, but yes it happens.  This was all done on 1-2 NL tables so I’m somewhat pleased.  Based on the information I’ve gathered from various sources it sounds like a win-rate beyond the $15-$28 per hour range is unsustainable when playing 1-2 NL live.  However, based on what I’ve seen the past month I’m going to have to disagree.  I expect to start out at least in the mid-twenty dollar per hour range.  I really believe that during the prime-time weekend sessions it is possible for me to at times average around $30+ per hour even on 1-2 tables, but yeah I need a much larger sample size.  It’s not about the actual time I put in live low-stakes NL.  The quality of my sessions is far more important.

On the weekdays I wouldn’t be putting in as big of sessions live, I’d like to stick more online especially Monday-Thursday.  My big live day/nights would really be Thursday-Sunday.  Notice Thursday overlaps and is still a question mark.  I’m not sure how my schedule will end up the first month or two I live out there, but I have begun thinking about.  I’m looking forward to beating these games very steadily during the next few months.  I want to move up to 2-4 as confidently and quickly as possible.  There is no difference in skill level between 1-2 and 2-4 live NL.  I would only be playing 1-2 at first because of bankroll management and feeling good about myself.  If you run bad on 2-4 you could hit variance and feel in a hole rather quickly, I don’t want it to start out like that for me.  I’m plenty modest enough to grind out a few thousand at 1-2 before I move up.  It doesn’t bother me at all.

So an awesome weekend considering I left early Saturday morning and got back around 9p.m last night.  I also went to a club at the Borgata late Saturday night, which was an amazing time.  The girl I met there that I liked the most happened to be from Kazakhstan of all places.  I got her number, but split up with her really late during the night.  We probably hung out over an hour and a half at the club which is a lot just meeting someone at a place like that.  We were both pretty drunk and eventually just lost each-other as the place began to split up.  So I crammed a lot into that one night trip.  I only slept about 2.5 hours, but it’s just sleep I can get it back!

As for the lease it looks like it is officially going to start October 1^st.  The count-down begins I suppose.  I’m very excited and looking forward to getting out there and grinding full time.  However, I’m not going to leave my job until I’m 100% ready.  The first two weekends I might be commuting back and forth moving stuff in and and using the place on the weekends.  I’m really playing that by ear, but I’m not forcing it either way.  The few extra weeks at the day job isn’t a big deal in the overall scheme of things, I probably won’t put in a two week notice until October 1^st or so.  It would be decent to have the steady job until everything is 100% set up in Brigantine.  Hopefully this will make a smoother transition.  I like the way I’m setting everything up here.  Quite a career shift though.

And that is about it.  As for online I’m not going to play until HEM is done importing hands into my new machine.  It’s been over 60 hours so basically something has to be really wrong.  But not a big deal, I’d like to use the first half of this week to study poker anyways.  There are still some areas that I want to focus on and improve before I begin mass multi-tabling again.  The back and forth commute on the weekends is REALLY exhausting, but I'm just going to have to get used to it for a while.

Moving, AC, and Poker Updates (8.24.2010)

I was around Atlantic City area again during the past weekend.  I finished up a total of $300 in about 12 hours of play.  Yes it could have gone a lot better, but that wasn’t a bad result based on the hourly rate, especially playing just 1-2NL.  At least my efforts on the tables paid for the hotel, gas, and tolls.  The lack of posts has to do with being really busy and not putting in the volume online.  My number one priority has really been lining up a place to move to and getting everything in order.  I’m really charging ahead here.  And for some topics:

Place in Brigantine NJ almost lined up

For those of you who don’t know Brigantine is a chill little beach town that is separated from Atlantic City by a single bridge.  It is rather secluded.  However, it is still only 5 minutes max from the Borgata and really close to all of the action without the filth of Atlantic City.  I’ve been looking at yearly rentals this entire month.  This weekend I found a house that was exactly what I was looking for.  I jumped and put in a good faith deposit to try to take the house off of the market.  It is a few minutes from AC, I can even see Harrah’s across the water from my theoretical balcony.  It’s also a few blocks from the beach.  The feel of the place and location is just awesome.  Once my credit checks out and references go through everything should be ok.  I’m pretty pessimistic by nature, but this is very close to a done deal.  I have a very strong employment record, credit history, and references.  I have no worries about my ability to pay rent going forward.  I have at least 8 months set aside (I haven’t been living at my parents the last 6 months+ for no reason).  The move in would most likely be somewhere between mid-September and October 1^st.

Roommate Situation

I will need two roommates to help me pay for rent.  This will make my life a lot easier.  The house can comfortably support three people.  Well the roommate situation took a really interesting turn of events during the past week.  I met a girl who 100% is committed to moving in.  I feel SO DAMN LUCKY that I found her out of nowhere.  Crazy enough she seems to feel the same way.  She is very stable and has a full-time job.  She is also drop dead gorgeous which is kind of irrelevant, but yeah I was sort of shocked.  Anyways we seem to get along great; she is really a sweet girl with an awesome sense of humor.  She doesn’t smoke or do drugs (like me), but definitely likes to get down for a few drinks (like me).  Such a good match out of nowhere, I’m very excited.  When I was on the tables Sunday we exchanged texts for several hours.  Her being committed makes me much less stressed out about this situation and taking all of the responsibility myself.

As for the baller poker player who was going to move in, he has spooked the fuck out of me a little.  Let me start by saying I really do like the kid and we get along very well.  I’m very much hoping he gets his shit together so he can move in.  Unfortunately it sounded like he took quite a hit at Turning Stone last weekend, and suddenly he’s dropped from 100% committed to not sure.  Deep down I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have substantial money pulled together to pay rent and play full time safely enough.  He won over 100k at some point last year, but obviously lacks the discipline.  I did some sweat sessions with him over the weekend and he is the real deal.  He’s a much better poker player than me.  Watching him get up 20+ tables on one monitor with seemingly no effort made me realize how much work I still have to do.  However, he’s not as mature and he lacks the DISCIPLINE.  Skill level won't always overcome poor discipline and bankroll managment.  He also seems a little careless with the cash.  The kid rolls up to the hotel room with a $700 vaporizer.  I mean sell that and don’t smoke weed as much and its 3 months rent saved right there.  What is the problem here?  We go to a diner; it’s a really expensive steak for lunch.  Its things like this.  For someone who has taken quite a downswing he doesn’t seem to be living as modestly as he should. 

That being said I want to stick my neck out for him.  I know once he stabilizes he will be an absolute monster.  He is going to tear things up one day.  But at the same time I really don’t want to screw myself over.  The last thing I need is a roommate defaulting on the rent and I have to cover that extra $450 per month out of my pocket for a month or two.  And what happens if I’m running badly at the same time?  Yes it’s a lot to think about.

Anyways, I’m giving him a few days to get his shit together and give me a final answer.  I’m still willing to work with him because we get along really well, I understand his talent, and have a good feeling about his potential.  However, if he falls through it would suck, but not a deal breaker.  I will have several weeks to line up another roommate.  And I still have my “dream girlie” roommate.  Also, two other stable girls have contacted me about being interested in living together and sharing rent.  Sure they didn’t almost get Supernova Elite last year, but that is life.

Poker

Not much here, but I’ve been playing live on the weekends plenty.  Its crazy how much more comfortable I feel playing live.  I feel so far ahead of the players who frequent those games after playing a few hundred thousand hands online and putting the study in.  Worst case scenario I will be grinding out live to earn what I need to live off of and save for each month.  Even this would be a hell of a lot better than corporate.  I have no problem grinding up a few thousand on 1-2 before I go up to 2-5.  It's all about feeling good about yourself.  I'm going into this very humble.  I still haven’t resumed the online grind yet.  This might end up being a month almost completely off from online.  Hopefully this weekend if I don’t go to Atlantic City I can put some good sessions in again.  But I really might have to go and help set up this place.  If the grinder falls through I have to meet other people and make a quick judgment call on the 3^rd roommate.  I also want to meet up with the girl and decide what furniture should stay and go (the place is furnished).  She is moving a lot of her own stuff and sounds paranoid about lame furniture being there (so female).  It shouldn’t be a big deal as long as we tell the landlord exactly what we want gone several weeks before the move. 

Sounds like a date!!!!  Just kidding just kidding, we are roommates I really have to do everything in my power to keep this professional.  Or do I?  I have no idea.  Can I really live with someone with this sort of connection and not seriously hit on her once over 12 months?  That sounds impossible.  AS long as it’s mutual I guess.  Nice distraction I found here, I’m sure it will ruin my life. 

Anyways, I just started importing all of my hands on my new PC last night around 10p.m  Well now it’s 24 hours later and HEM is still importing…………  God only knows how long this will take.  After that I have to transfer notes and re-set up the HUD, so fricking annoying.

Oh sweating the kid this weekend made me realize even more how much I really should have a hot key program installed when serious multi-tabling.  So I’ll be looking to purchase Table Ninja shortly after I set everything up.  This is not something I should be neglecting.  I wanted to do this a while ago, but I forgot about it and it fell off my radar.

Today I’m $3,000 richer (sort of)

Quite an interesting find.  My future landlord wanted a record of steady employment and some recent pay stubs (a reasonable request).  The problem is that during the past 2 years+ I have had direct deposit set up.  I really never review the actually details of my paychecks.  I just see a deposit show up online in my checking account each week and think "ok seems about right".  Terrible I know.  So I had to contact my recruiter and find out how to view everything online.  It took about 20 minutes to figure out.  So as I'm getting some paystubs together I realize a small percentage of each check has been going to a 401k plan (retirement account).  Apparently when I first started my employment at the evil corporation I was auto-enrolled for a 401k plan where about 2% was taken out of each check.  I never noticed the 2% being taken out.  I gave them an email that I never check, so I also saw no emails about the status of the account.  So where the hell is this 401k account?  I spent the morning tracking it down and found the account with a little over $3,000 in it.  I really had no idea this existed until today.

So if you see a clean cut dude with a really attractive roommate on the roulette table at your local casino who says: "$3,000 on black please" that might be me.  My dreams of putting $3,000 on black were soon cut short when I realized that this was a retirement account and it's seriously hard to withdrawal the money, especially while still employed for the company that set it up.  Actually while still employed it's pretty much impossible to withdrawal on until you are 59 or something stupid.  That's  um 35 years.  I haven't even been alive close to 35 god damn years.  You can take loans out on it, but that's not really worth the effort if it's not an emergency.  I found this all a little ridiculous, especially considering I didn't even know a portion of my income was going towards this account.  Besides it's my damn money and I can't even draw 50% out in case of an emergency?

I NEED EXTRA CAPITAL TO THROW AROUND TO PLAY POKER FULL TIME.  HOW IS THIS NOT AN EMERGENCY?  HELLO?

Wow thanks for the amazing deal and looking out for me!  However, once I'm let go or quit by the end of October it's a different story.  I can then basically roll over the account and have the flexibility to withdrawal with a 20-30% penalty.  During the past two years the account made 17% on top of what I put in so it performed rather well.  So once I quit I have at least $2100 I can draw on that I didn't even know I had.

This is pretty solid.  If the plan wasn't set up I surely would have just spent the small amount of money received each week instead of putting it towards this account.  I would have been used to the extra $20-30 or so per week and just spent accordingly.  So in the long run I think it's actually better I had this account without my knowledge, even if I end up withdrawing with a sizable penalty.  So a decent day.

-bag

N.Y Trip, Moving Plans, and Random (8.18.2010)

I reluctantly returned from Manhattan very late Monday morning.  An incredible time like usual.  It was very depressing going back.  I will say the trip involved some crazy nights, catching up with my brothers, and I even got my ring back from a very cool girl!  Oh  let’s just say if you stand on one street in East Village of Manhattan for 1 hour you will see more attractive single girls walking by in 30 minutes than all of my city combined.  Furthermore, let’s say I had a choice.  I could choose to:

A)  Go on a date with any ONE single girl living in my respectable mid-size city, I hand pick.

Or

B)  Go on a date with any ONE of the single girls who just walked by on that street in 30 minutes.

I genuinely feel I would pick B.  As ridiculous as that may sound, you just have to be there….

…..I really wish I was joking. 

Since we are on the topic of good looking girls walking by on the street I have a kind of random quick story.  During one of the nights my younger brother was having a small party.  I thought it would be a good idea to have a few drinks, walk outside, and hit on a random girl(s) that walked by.  Yes I thought of this ridiculous idea myself and didn't tell anyone about my plans until the next day (such courage is generally looked down upon by the people I hang out with in NY.  They think in a city of over 8 million people it will make them look bad if the girl turns me down and they have to see her again or something.  Though most of the time the girl will be flattered even if not interested.  And 99.9% of the time they would never run into her again, and even if they did they would never talk to her anyways.  What the fuck!  Nice logic right?)

So I get out there.  I wasn't sure how long I was going to try this or what exactly  I was going to say.  I stand there about 5 minutes.  I really wasn't sure what my plan was.  But I wanted to seal the deal with something like "Hey well I have to get back inside, but you girls are really cute.  Why don't you come up and have a few drinks with us!"  So finally I see a girl I commit to talking to.  She slows down sort of close to the entrace of my brother's hallway like she is looking for something.

Baglife:  "Hi how are you? Are you looking for something?"

Girl:  Hello!  Not bad you?  Yeah actually......... blah's party.

Baglife:  "Oh I'm blah's brother yeah come on in."

LOL so the first fucking girl I hit on happens to be coming to the party anyway.  So I walked her and her friends up and forgot about my plans.  I ended up getting her number later, but I'm not going to text her anyways.  I found it ironic that I ACTUALLY helped someone by being outside and attempting such a ridiculous plan. 

Something of SUBSTANCE that actually came out of the trip:

More importantly, I also worked out an additional $5,000 to “borrow”, which will go towards my rent when I move out.  This was pretty huge for me.  It really puts me in a very strong position to succeed going forward.  Without that money I would have been stressing the hell out.  It’s a great type of loan because well it’s not a real loan.  If I pay it back in a year that’s fine, if I pay it back in 5 years that’s fine, if I pay it back never that’s also fine.  My first goal after making myself self sustaining will be to pay it back because of the principle, but it will not set me back in anyway if I don’t.  No I won't have some dude showing up to my door with a bat.  It’s not like a bank loan or something.  The lender has been close to me my entire life, believes in my passion and ability, and he’s in a position where the monetary amount means nothing to him.  The principle behind it means a lot, he’s not just throwing 5 grand at anyone, but the monetary amount means nothing to him in the overall scheme of things.

So When the Hell Am I Moving Out?

I will be in AC area the next two weekends looking for places.  So I’m going to say it’s very very possible I will sign a lease by the first week of September.  The kid I am moving in with seems 100% set on signing by then.  I may keep my day job in Maryland after I sign until mid-October.  If this happened, I would just commute to AC on the weekends to use the place.  This would be a gradual transition, and I could set things up.  Even then I would be saving money on hotels.

But the real reason for putting myself through such torture would not be a “gradual transition”.  If I keep my day job until October I could very well be entitled to some nice benefits.  These benefits could add up to well over $5,000.  I really think it would be incredibly stupid to walk away from such a large amount of “free money”.  I’m strapped for cash.  I’m putting everything into this move with no support.  I would hate to look back in 6 months and say “man if I just waited that extra month I would be completely fine right now”.  It’s about getting myself in the best possible position to succeed playing poker full time.  $5,000+ could end up making or breaking me in the long run.  I feel the hardest part playing full time will be the first few months and it would be foolish to disregard such a cushion.

So yes I suppose this has become a little more complicated then a cut and dry: “I quit; poker full time now!”  Unfortunately, I may have to tough it out with the day job even after I sign until mid-October.

My Day Job

It has gone from moderate hell to the bane of my living existence.  I can’t express in words here how much I despise it.  How deeply I burn to never step foot in that hell-hole again.  Just when I think it can’t get any worse.  Just when I think to myself: what else could possibly make it worse?  Rest assured my department or direct boss finds some unimaginable way to make it so.  I’m going to steal the Office Space quote: “Every day is the worst day of my life”.  I’ll modify it: “Every day I enter the office  is the worst day job office experience of my life”.

 And in the midst of all the anger I say to myself:  “Do not let it bother you”.  I can’t let it bring me down.  It simply doesn’t matter anymore.  The bridges have already been burned.  The lines have already been obliterated.  All bets are off.  What happens in the office has to stay there.  There must be a distinct separation from the rest of my life during this next month or two.  It’s a pay-check nothing more.  NOTHING.

I find it harder and harder to bring any sort of humor to the situation.  But here I give you some futile attempts from the last month:

Sign’s to Leave Corporate (Part XVII):

4)  You wore a pink rubber band sea-horse bracelet to an internal interview at least once during the last month.

You didn't get the job. Shocking!

5)  The only reason you went on the interview as because you applied a while ago and didn't feel like cancelling.

Corporate has wasted your time for the past two and a half years.  So you really didn't see the problem with wasting 30 minutes of their time.  So ill wear my pink rubber band sea-creature.  And oh screw your suit and tie.

6)  Three new people from another group were forcefully relocated a few desks from you.  The first week they were alerted that Wednesday's is "BAGEL DAY".

Wait a second... you've been on the floor for a year and didn't know Wednesday was bagel day.

7)  Now that you know Wednesday is bagel day, you still refuse to get a bagel.

You know what?  Fuck your bagel.  Seriously.

9)  You have 15 bookmarked folders on your web browser of choice.

Only one of the folders is work related.

10)  Your boss asked to borrow your umbrella at least once during the past month.

You did not let her.

Anyone else fine, but you can walk in the rain.

Online Poker

Moving on to online poker.  Pretty non-existent during the past few weeks unfortunately.  I’m still working on rebuilding two new computers from scratch, which is taking some extra time.  I’ve also been away pretty much every other weekend, and some weekdays I’ve been catching up with friends.  But my weekend trips usually have some sort of direct attachment to my long term poker goals.  For example, Manhattan I worked out the $5,000 investment.  And Atlantic City the next two weekends I will be playing live and looking at places to move.  However, I expect to have a bad-ass operational set-up by Friday.  I also have a LOT of full ring studying I’d like to do before I go back to 12-tabling+ full ring.  I’ve worked out lesson plans on various topics.  I’m looking forward to plugging up any variations from optimal play.  I’m also looking forward to having the time again to put into online.  With the weekends going to traveling the 6-9 hours I would normally cram during the week have been going into studying, hardware b.s, and friends.  That will shift soon enough.

Budget for the Move

I will discuss later.  Not a lot, but very detailed.  I will have enough to give myself a solid shot.  I will not be afraid to put everything into this.

Worries about the Move

Helping supplement my income with online poker is my main worry.  Despite my efforts I’m not proven yet, even with Supernova status.  And now I’ve transitioned my game again.  This time hopefully there will be no transition from full ring.  I just need to get to a point of solid income supplementing playing online.  There is no excuse except time, and I can’t wait to have that damn time back.  My fundamentals, resources, and skill-set are there.  I just need to polish it all off.  The good thing is even if online is stuttering at first I will be in a position to clear what I need to live off of playing brick and mortar in the casinos.

Study topics required for full ring

I would like to get into this during some future posts.

Close

That’s really about it.  I’ve been in a strange mood and haven’t felt like writing much.  I go through phases of really worried to REALLY excited, blended in with the shitty day job.  So I hope this book of nonsense made up the lack of posts some.  Hope everyone is well!

-bag

Volume Slash (August Schedule/Goals)

What have I been up to?  Boring post here, but this is why my volume online has been slashed this month.  Never posted that video I mentioned during the last post, maybe later.  Anyways here is my August:

Thursday, August 5^th:  Out in the city with friends.

Friday, August 6^th:  Off to work very hung-over the next day.  I was then talked into leaving for the beach at 9:00 p.m.  Stayed up until 6:30 a.m watching the sunrise and drinking.

Saturday, August 7^th:  I ditch the Russian girl.  She was a large reason I drove 3 hours to the beach last minute.  But what is the point?  If something serious develops do I really have time to drive 3 hours to see her every weekend?  It’s just impossible.  So repeat of Friday, annihilation.

Tuesday August 10^th: Friend’s 21^st birthday.  Out on a Tuesday night, ended up hammered.  Met a girl I was extremely attracted to, but not worth the effort.  I don’t ever remember going out on a Tuesday night, this is getting bad……..

Thursday, August 12^th:  Off to Manhattan for the weekend.  I’m sure this night will end very badly.

Friday, August 13^th:  Staying at a girl’s place who is in a permanent state of blow-out.  This will be the polar opposite of “romantic relaxing evening”.  Expect to get drank under the table by a girl who must weigh under 100 pounds.  Expect to man up later no matter what happens that night.  Don’t let anything she does bother you in anyway.  Same girl I mentioned here.  Man I read back that post and still have no idea what the fuck I was actually thinking.  Well I do, but WAY TO CLOSE.  I wish I could go back in time and be like CHILL DAWG.

Saturday, August 14^th:  Repeat.  I also have to meet with someone very important who may lend me some money for my move.  So Manhattan does have some purpose besides partying the entire time.  It is important I leave with a check if possible.  We originally discussed 5k, but I might try to talk my way as close to 10k if possible.  I could really use the capital.  Not like I won’t pay it back.  It’s either rot in an office 6 months to earn that or borrow it and escape early.  I’d be fucked without at least the 5k.

Sunday, August 15^th:  Crawl back to Maryland depressed and barely alive.  Depressed because I have to go back to Maryland.  Barely alive because I’ve consumed enough booze to kill an elephant during the past few nights.  And not a small elephant, a moderately sized elephant at least.

Aug 16^th- 20^th:  Get the new machine set up for poker.  I want to have two operational set-ups, each with nice dual monitors for poker.  When I move I can take one set up and leave the other behind for when I visit.  Not going out again until this is complete.  The new machine will be able to play Starcraft 2 very well.  If there is one game I need to make time for its SC2, I just have to find a way.  It is against my morals NOT to.

Thursday Aug 19^th:  Most likely going out?  Maybe SC2 > Going out.  SC2 can really keep me out of trouble the next few months.  It has potential!

Friday Aug 20^th:  Hopefully a rare online poker session.

Sat, Aug 21^st- Mon, Aug 23^rd-  Booking a hotel and meeting with the future roommate to look at places in the Atlantic City area.  I will commit to a lease if the right place is found.  Will put in some nice live volume.

24- 26^th-  For the love of God let’s squeeze in at least one 4 hour poker session online.

Fri, Aug 27^th- Sun, Aug 29^th-  Atlantic City area again.  This time some friends from home were also planning a trip.  Therefore, Saturday night should turn into quite a mess.  This should be a mix of blow-out, poker, and looking for places.  Hoping to commit to a lease by the end of this weekend.

Goals:

1)  Continue studying the game.  This can be done even while I travel.  I have binders of notes/sessions/strategies to take along.

2)  Get yourself ready financially.  This includes the loan and shifting some funds around.  By September I should have a minimum 10k live roll, 5k online, and 5k+ for rent/living ready for the next few months.

3)  Enjoy life, but stay alive.

4)  Tough out the day job.  The longest you would be there is until October.  That time will fly by.

5)  Sign DAT lease.  Goodbye financial stability.

6)  Don’t get attached to any girl.  Especially one who lives in Manhattan (this is a trap I’ve enjoyed falling into during the past).  The last thing I need is to throw all of my time into a black hole on the weekends.

7)  Aim to stay active at least with tennis during the weeks.

Updates and Online Break (8.9.2010)

My plan was originally to stay in town and put in some volume over the weekend.  There was a million dollar guaranteed Supernova freeroll, but I ended up blowing off the grind for the beach.  It was one of my best friend’s birthdays and he really wanted me to hang out.  And that’s me.  I spend a half a year torturing myself to hit a certain status, and then I blow off the free perks.  Well done, very logical!  I actually took a video clip of my friend and I watching the sunrise at the beach drunk out of our minds at 6:30 a.m after being up all night (everyone else was sleeping).  The sunrise was really cool and the discussions were absolutely hilarious.  I waste no time starting off: “You know, I really had high hopes for that Russian girl!”  Here I was referring to a girl I had been exchanging texts with for two weeks who lived at the beach.  Let’s just say we had a communication break-down and it never happened.  I’m talking most of the time so I risk revealing my true identity, but I don’t actually show myself on the video so I may consider posting it here tonight:

(Stay tuned)

It's 22 minutes in length so I may have to post on youtube and link it.  I think it might be cool for some readers to hear what I sound like.  But then again this isn’t such an accurate representation of normal.  I had been up partying until 6:30 a.m at that point in the video.  I’m cursing tons and I’m kind-of out of my mind to say the least.

I’ve barely logged any hands this month.  I have put in some good study, but that’s about it.  This upcoming Thursday-Sunday I’m visiting family in Manhattan.  The two weekends after that I’m going to be back and forth between Atlantic City area checking out places.  So it looks like August is going to turn into the lowest volume month online so far this year.  However, I’m going to be putting in a decent amount of volume live in AC.

The goal is to sign a lease by early September.  It will probably turn into a situation where I sign a lease, but continue commuting back and forth for the first month or so because of my day job.  Even then I would be saving money as long as I used the place 3 out of the 4 weekends during the month.  Hotels cost a lot of money and they suck.  There are some loose ends I would need to tie up with my job before I left for good.  Taking care of this last step is important; it could end up eventually breaking me if I screw it up.  I’m not going to elaborate here; I’ll just leave it at that.

I’m not torturing myself with the volume on top of my day job this month.  My path is already set; I’m going to play poker full time.  So my mind-set has sort of shifted from:

A)  I need to put in as much volume as possible on top of my day job so I can quit and play full time with a respectable win-rate.

To:

B)  There is no need to torture myself during August.  My path is already set to play full time.  The last two months of the day job will provide the final bit of income I need to take a shot.  August should be about lining up a place and catching up with friends/family.

-bag