I can honestly say that I have thoroughly enjoyed the break from poker. After awhile it becomes quite a grind. My Full Tilt account is at about $50 right now. I see three possible choices:

1) Start with $50 and see where I can get myself. I've thought about taking the $50 and moving up in stakes very quickly (say with just a couple of buyins at each level) and see how far I can take it.

2) Sign up for ePassporte, make a deposit (which I have a 50% up to $500 bonus on Full Tilt right now, this is very tempting).

3) Get someone to give me $50 cash for the money and get out of Full Tilt and most likely online poker all together.

Ok, enough of the bull shit. Number 3 is out. I want to do Number 1, but not taking advantage of that $500 bonus seems like a mistake. Although it is such a hassle to make that epassporte account (did you know that epassporte charges $5 a year for their account??? WTF?). Oh well, I still have a little while to contemplate what to do.

My break has been nice. My last night to play online poker I lost $200 at the $50 6max tables. I made a few mistakes, but most of it was just running bad.

I started playing a local game and was taking some sick beats there as well. I was all in for about $60 to $90 over the course of about 5 hands... so roughly $120 to $180 pots as a 75% FAVORITE. I did not win a single one. Even after those beats after about a week of playing that game I was only a $50 loser. Not too bad all things considered.

Hopefully I can feel rejuvenated by mid August and start playing again. We will see if that happens. I suppose I will finally have to sign up for ePassporte.... maybe Full Tilt Poker can add a better deposit/withdrawal system in the next month and a half... one can hope, right?

I was doing ok at the tables in Vegas. Was up a little in NL at Bellagio and Caesars... then I went over to the Venetian and lost it all :( Couple of rough spots and a poorly played QQ on my part cost me my roll in Vegas (I only brought $500 to play poker, and it went bye bye in that one session.) All in all I was ok with my play, the hand that I went out on I played correctly, just bad luck. I lost about $100 when I played my QQ horribly pre and post flop. Oh well.

I went to the Rio and took a look at the WSOP for the very first time. It's true what they say, it is damn cold in the poker rooms at the Rio. So many tables and people walking around and watching professional players. I saw several players at the Rio play in either a tournament or side game, the list including: Phil Hellmuth, Jennifer Harman, and Eric Seidel to name a few.

At the Bellagio poker room I saw several top pros, Sammy Farha, Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Freddy Deeb, Toto Leonidas, and Internet pro Brian Townsend. Pretty cool to play in the same poker room as all these great players (next goal will be to play in the exact same game as them :)

After the trip though, I came to the conclusion that I really like poker, but just have really been dreading the grind online that I do when I play on Full Tilt. I think I am going to stop playing poker online for quite a while. I think it may be a good thing for me. I have a friend that is going to help me cash out on Full Tilt (since I never set up my ePassporte account).

I don't think I will leave any money on Full Tilt (not even enough for a few tournaments.) I need to find a new hobby, one that isn't such a grind but can still make me money. Any ideas?

I leave for Vegas tomorrow afternoon. Wish me luck at the tables. I will mostly be playing at Caesar's and MGM, and possibly at the Bellagio.

Booyakasha. Profit $165 in about 3.5 hours. I was actually up $400 at one point in the night, but then I had these three poopy hands happen:

I am in the SB with AK. UTG+1 raises to 12 (standard for the table). Three callers (once again, standard for any raise, hahaha), and I call from the SB. Five to the flop, $60 or so in the pot. Flop is K93. I check (pretty sure I had the original raiser beat, so I wanted him to bet, maybe get a couple of callers, then reraise), original raiser bets $20, fold fold, ALL IN by the guy on my right. WTF. He is all in for about $120 or so, and I have about $240 in front of me at this point. Oooh what a predicament. Now I wish I had bet out :( Anyways, after about thirty seconds of evaluation I finally fold, and the original raiser quick calls with KJ. Guy to my right has 93o, yes, he hit two pair on that flop of K93. 93 wins the pot and I am feeling good that I layed that hand down.

Next hand was one that I should not have been in, but oh well. Mid position raises it to 12, two callers, and I am in the BB with JQs. I call (for shits and giggles.) Flop is J44. I check, raises bets like $15 into $55, one caller, I reraise to $45. Original raiser thinks for about 1 minute, then finally mucks. As the raiser was thinking, the guy that called the $15 to my right was acting like he was going to muck his cards. I thought that was very out of line. So after the original raiser mucks his cards, the guy that was pretending to muck his cards goes all in for $145 total. HAHA. Do you have a 4 mister?!?!?!? I THINK SOOOOO. I muck after a brief deliberation and he shows 45. NO SHIT SHERLOCK.

This was my third to last hand of the night. I am on the button with 99. Mid position raises to 12, two callers, and I call with 99 in position. Four players to the flop. Flop is 789. Sweet, but not really. Original raiser bets $15 into 40. Both other players call. I call as well (not going to get too involved with that scary board, but also top set I think is too strong to fold here. I probably should have raised it, but I was playing very cautiously at this table.) Turn is a 5. So 7895. Original raiser bets $35 into 100. Other two players fold... HUH??? Ok, now I think I might actually have the best hand, since he was the preflop raiser, would he really have 66 or A6??? Honestly, I thought he MIGHT have TJ, so I decided to just call the turn bet. River comes a 6. So 78956. He checks, and naturally I check right behind. He shows TT and takes it down. ROFL! Although, in the end, I did save myself some money, since he would have surely called me if I pushed all in (he even said he would of). In any case, I still think I misplayed this hand. I actually like a raise on the turn more so than the flop, I think I had much more information after the turn bet and players folding than I did on the flop. In any case, I only lost like $50 or so on that hand so I wasn't too bummed.

All in all a great warm up session for Vegas. Vegas, here I come.

I am going to the casino in Oklahoma tomorrow. I leave for Vegas this Sunday, June 17th and will be there until Wednesday, June 20th. I wanted to go to the Oklahoma casino as a little "warm up" for the fishy in Vegas right now. I'll blog about my experience tomorrow before my Vegas trip.

I was busy looking for a car these past few weeks. I finally found one I liked. I got a 2003 Honda CRV, used, with 48k miles on it. Not too shabby. Once I found the car, I was able to play some poker.

I have started to play the $50 NL 6max tables on Full Tilt Poker. I am learning, but it has been a tough go so far. I am up at the tables, but I have made some incredibly awful calls the past week or so that have cost me quite a bit. Live and learn I suppose.

As a graduation gift my Dad bought me a second Samsung LCD 20.1 inch monitor. It is the same brand and model of the one that I currently had. Having two monitors allows me to play a few more tables at a time, plus giving me plenty of desktop space so that I can talk with friends and surf the Internet while playing or watch movies while I play. I've only had it up and operational for about five days now, but I absolutely love it.

I talked with a few friends earlier in the semester and they said that once I went dual monitor I would never look back.... and they were exactly right. If anyone is debating whether to get a second monitor for a dual setup, DO IT. I guarantee you will not regret it.

I've had two sessions at the $50 buyin, trying to build my bankroll up before my June 17 - 20 trip to Vegas. I was profitable in both. I won $100 the first night for roughly $25 an hour, and I won $40 the second night for roughly $20 an hour. Definitely a much needed victory for me. At this point any profit was good.

The one week off really helped me clear my mind. I probably should have taken some time off after my two initial bad sessions. I don't think my game was affected too much after that, but even if it was remotely affected I should have known to take the time off. Oh well. Live and learn.

So my first session at $100 buyin did not work out too well. Down $360 in about an hour and a half. Only about $90 was really my fault, I made a dumb call on the river (as usual.) Other than that $90, the rest of the losses were typical.... set over set (my last three sets have been set over set, with me being the loser each time), over pair vs flush draw (he hits on river, all in on turn), and top pair top kicker (he turns two pair after all in on flop, AK v KQ, flop K63Q2).

After this session, I took an oath that I will not play poker for a week. I need to clear my head and try and put this awful losing streak to an end. I think I may have to drop to the $50 buyin seeing as how my bankroll on Full Tilt Poker is only $800 now. I don't know, I might play the $50 buyin a few sessions and then jump to the $100 when my bank roll gets to $1000.

For the time being, I am going to try and clear my mind of all things poker for the next week. HA. I make no guarantees.