November was pretty damn good to me.  A lot of aspects of life are “progressing nicely” at the moment – I’ve got a rekindled desire to play online MTTs again, I’ve been successful at cash games, my coaching group is plugging along nicely, I’ve spent a ton of time working on my own game, and I’ve made a “life gamble” that hopefully will net gain happiness EV.  What a tease of me to put that last.

I’ve always loved tournaments.  Even in the old days when I was 18-19 and a MSNL cash player I’d enjoy the thrill and “challenge” of tournaments, even though I was making huuuuge mtt mistakes and basically donating (as much as a winning cash player could “donate” in 2006) week after week on sundays, never really winning any money.  Obviously my life changed once I started listening to Vivek and his hocus pocus aka “reasons for doing things” and started making sense of proper tournament strategy.  Mixed with a little bit of hijacked brown magic and you get a pretty ill 2007.  My affinity for the online variety of MTTs comes and goes; it’s not nearly as interesting as live tournaments are, and aren’t really played for large amounts of money, and structures tend to be pretty shallow and boring.  That being said, I’m back into them for the meantime, and the past few weeks have made 5 top-9 finishes (but 0 wins ) and it feels pretty good to be “back”.

In my last post that didn’t have anything to do with almonds, I mention that I’ve started dabbling in cash again and was looking to make a full transition back to it.  Well, de-rusting operation: success.   I’ve come back to the 3-6 games and put in a bunch of hands (without playing too much higher somehow!  well, at least not TOO often).  I’m very comfortable with my NL game right now and feel like it’s probably better than it’s ever been.  I’m putting a ton of hours every week into working on my game in watching videos or reading material, and reaping the benefits from all the coaching work I’ve been doing too.  My coaching experiment that I started a few months ago has been working on so many levels – it’s not what I exactly envisioned it would be, but it “works” much better than I imagined.  It’s obviously a good experience for the students, but it’s very very good for me as well as a player.  It’s an awesome motivator to keep current with videos, put in hours, and make sure all my reasoning is solid.  I’m very glad I did it and hopefully it’ll keep being successful.  I am still accepting students on a very limited basis, however, you need to have a minimum bankroll of 6k, some sort of reference (I have to know who you are or have someone I know vouch for you) and above all you have to have a passion and a ton of time to dedicate.  If you think you fit…well…message me.  Note even if you are the man I’ve been waiting all my life for you might not get in, though, since we’re pretty full at the moment, but you never know.

A few weeks ago, I played a guy at 2-4 HU plo.  In not too many hands, I was stuck 2.2K.  I felt like I wasn’t getting horribly outplayed but I really had no idea what was correct in so many spots.  I never really learned PLO or spent any time on the game (although I have HHs of playing 25-50 PLO from 2006, lol), and that loss although tiny financially kind of motivated me to unbury myself from my lifetime -70k cashgame PLO hole and really learn the game properly.  I’ve spent a dozen hours watching videos, about half that reading stuff, and about 25 playing the past week.  That is a lot of PLO.  I’m trying not to play above 3-6 (which can be a tough game sometimes), and so far so good – I’ve won about 5k at an avg stake of 2-4 and feel pretty comfortable.  My vpip has even sunk below 30 !!!!  I know, I didn’t believe it was possible either.  The first time I clicked fold facing a raise with I kinda tensed up for a moment sensing I was going to get smited from above for my sin, but I never did, so…maybe tight(ish) is right after all.  We’ll see.

As I’ve mentioned on this blog before, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis a few years ago, but outside of the 4-5 months of hellish misery a few years ago, I’ve been mostly fine and in remission.  I’ve decided though that the side effects of the colazal, the only medication I’m currently on to maintain remission, are just becoming too much on a day-to-day basis and I’m going to try to get off it entirely.  Rare is the day where I feel 100%; far more often I feel 80% and have some collection of headaches, pains, nausea, fatigue, tired from trouble sleeping, etc.  The hair thinning is annoying as hell too for a 22 year old.  I used to blame all the aches/pains/problems on the colitis itself, but it appears my maladies seem at least somewhat likely to be a side effect of the pills.  I wasn’t even able to swallow a pill until I was 17, and once I got sick, I haven’t had a day go by since then where I wasn’t taking something.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, I know how bad some people with UC have it, and I’m very appreciative to be in remission and all, but I have to see if I can live better with less meds/no meds/different meds.  As my awesome doctor says, we can do whatever I want medication-wise, since I’m the one risking the misery of a flareup.  More gambling.

In PokerVT news, I’ve recently finished a 2.5 hour video that I truly think is my one of my best ever.  It came out really, really good, and I think it’ll be very well received.  It’s certainly not a beginner video, but I think I explain myself pretty well and obviously I’ll be available for questions after the videos are posted.  There’s also several ridiculously cool series in the works that I’m going to be involved in that will make for some awesome content….look for that in early of next year.  And maybe a blog post before then.  Promises, promises…