meh at October. A lot has happened this month that signifies so many transitions, both psychological and material...hard to explain, but its been a weird and somewhat depressing month. I'm not at all unhappy that its over. Recently things have been relatively quiet, and honestly that is really ok with me, I haven't been going out much and have been trying to maintain a good balance of playing time and do-nothing-relax time in order to enjoy the balance to which I've grown accustomed.
Poker went pretty well this month. I only got in about 500 tournaments, mostly mtts, and a few hours of coaching/video making for a total of about +5k. Not bad considering I worked about 60 hours in total for the month, but I can't help but think if I got in more volume like I told myself I would that I'd be closer to the 10k mark than the 5k mark. Oh well, hopefully soon. I finally regained platinum star VIP status on pokerstars also which hasnt happened in months due to not being here in the summer to play enough and just not putting in the time at the stakes I should be playing to maintain high VIP status. Its probably too late this year, but next year I will for sure become a supernova VIP...i look forward to that. Thats about all for now, I look forward to November, and much moreso, December. Thanks for reading.
-Alex
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Monday, October 29, 2007
sick
I hate being sick. I woke up yesterday with a sore throat and general feeling of the common colds deathness (yes, I made up that word), so I basically did nothing all day. I sat in the dark either in my circular "chill" chair or in bed watching Arrested Development DVDs and trying to stay hydrated/medicated/rested. I'm feeling slightly better today, hopefully tommorow I'll be good to go. I decided to get to all of my classes despite the sickness, so I went from wakeup at 1030 to around 4pm without food and with very little water (Stops at fountains), and being sick and tired that just isnt much fun when you're going at a pretty fast pace during the day. Generally I don't have a problem getting through my schedule but on days like today it proved more difficult.
I came back and relaxed some before fraternity meeting, which I went to before coming back to make my 3rd video for donkit/sharkscope. I am 4 tabling 27 turbos in this video, so look for that on the site(s) if youre interested, and please, feedback always welcome via 2+2 messages, comments here, aim/email. I think it turned out well and I got into some good spots to discuss, including an early game situation that rarely comes up in sngs that was good to talk through for the audience. I'll announce when that is posted. Otherwise, there isn't too much else going on. Ideally I'd like to get in one more session tomorrow before the end of the month, we'll see if I can come through and not continue to be sick/too tired to want to put in a serious session. Thanks for reading.
-Alex
I came back and relaxed some before fraternity meeting, which I went to before coming back to make my 3rd video for donkit/sharkscope. I am 4 tabling 27 turbos in this video, so look for that on the site(s) if youre interested, and please, feedback always welcome via 2+2 messages, comments here, aim/email. I think it turned out well and I got into some good spots to discuss, including an early game situation that rarely comes up in sngs that was good to talk through for the audience. I'll announce when that is posted. Otherwise, there isn't too much else going on. Ideally I'd like to get in one more session tomorrow before the end of the month, we'll see if I can come through and not continue to be sick/too tired to want to put in a serious session. Thanks for reading.
-Alex
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Rainy Day...but not a bad one
Cruddy weather out, but I've never minded the rain so much so it didn't go too poorly. lets see:
school: I had to present a lesson in English today so I had to get dressed up for that...not ideal with the water coming down on you, but it went fine I think. I skipped Badminton after that because frankly I didn't want to run 10 minutes away from my apartment, mess up my nice clothes even more and just go through the wednesday process, so I got lazy and called it quits after english. Kind of a dull rainy day I guess.
Poker: I got home and hung out with a friend upstairs, and after a couple hour, much needed nap, I sat down for a session, starting with the 55 buy in 50k grtd on stars. I added some mtts in and I was playing my usual regiment though not as intensely, I don't think I ever had more than 12 games going. Anyways, got in 35 tournaments and made 1k, which helps me crawl out of losing weekend. We'll see what happens next, I hope I can get time in to grind in the next week with the end of the month coming, I should have platinum star (VIP Status on pokerstars) and hopefully about 1k tournies for the month. We'll see about profits.
Also, my second Donkit video will be up within the next few days, so look for that on www.donkit.com or www.sharkscope.com if you want to check it out, Its another two tabling video. I'll be making my third video for the site soon and am open to suggestions of what I should play. If you have anything you'd like to suggest, feel free to leave it in the comments or email me (alex.triner@gmail.com) or to PM me on the forum. Thanks for reading, hope everyone is doing well.
-Alex
school: I had to present a lesson in English today so I had to get dressed up for that...not ideal with the water coming down on you, but it went fine I think. I skipped Badminton after that because frankly I didn't want to run 10 minutes away from my apartment, mess up my nice clothes even more and just go through the wednesday process, so I got lazy and called it quits after english. Kind of a dull rainy day I guess.
Poker: I got home and hung out with a friend upstairs, and after a couple hour, much needed nap, I sat down for a session, starting with the 55 buy in 50k grtd on stars. I added some mtts in and I was playing my usual regiment though not as intensely, I don't think I ever had more than 12 games going. Anyways, got in 35 tournaments and made 1k, which helps me crawl out of losing weekend. We'll see what happens next, I hope I can get time in to grind in the next week with the end of the month coming, I should have platinum star (VIP Status on pokerstars) and hopefully about 1k tournies for the month. We'll see about profits.
Also, my second Donkit video will be up within the next few days, so look for that on www.donkit.com or www.sharkscope.com if you want to check it out, Its another two tabling video. I'll be making my third video for the site soon and am open to suggestions of what I should play. If you have anything you'd like to suggest, feel free to leave it in the comments or email me (alex.triner@gmail.com) or to PM me on the forum. Thanks for reading, hope everyone is doing well.
-Alex
Monday, October 22, 2007
lol
Poker: yeah that didnt go at all as planned. Basically after I downswung thursday night, I made it all back/friday saturday and then some, only to go -2450 yesterday. Sick career single day loser. Just multiply thursdays blog post by a factor of 5 and you'll get the idea. Truly amazing, here are just 3 representations of how it went:
The quality of play: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1614291
A typical early game beat: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1614035
When I finally went deep, it went like this: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1613726
So yeah I wont post them all, that would take a while, but it was less than desireable. I'm looking to pick it back up this evening and hope I don't have to take a break.
School/life: My brother and a couple friends were in town for the homecoming football game (UMD v. Virginia). We went tailgating for a few hours but I didn't stay for too much of the game as it was just ridiculously crowded and I was better served going to find a tv to watch with people.
I've been fighting back pains since last semester (pre-summer) and they've been acting up, so I've tried to stay loose stretching and heating and carefully avoiding class :) Well, not really, but I skipped my first this morning that I have in a while, just to relax and kind of recover between back and poker and spiting school for making me miss homecoming.
Other than another two english assignments, the week looks relatively light so I'm gonna try to get out some and just make this a relax-week. Gym? Maybe...maybe...
Thanks for reading.
-Alex
The quality of play: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1614291
A typical early game beat: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1614035
When I finally went deep, it went like this: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1613726
So yeah I wont post them all, that would take a while, but it was less than desireable. I'm looking to pick it back up this evening and hope I don't have to take a break.
School/life: My brother and a couple friends were in town for the homecoming football game (UMD v. Virginia). We went tailgating for a few hours but I didn't stay for too much of the game as it was just ridiculously crowded and I was better served going to find a tv to watch with people.
I've been fighting back pains since last semester (pre-summer) and they've been acting up, so I've tried to stay loose stretching and heating and carefully avoiding class :) Well, not really, but I skipped my first this morning that I have in a while, just to relax and kind of recover between back and poker and spiting school for making me miss homecoming.
Other than another two english assignments, the week looks relatively light so I'm gonna try to get out some and just make this a relax-week. Gym? Maybe...maybe...
Thanks for reading.
-Alex
Friday, October 19, 2007
gahhh
not a great end to the week.
stuff: school kinda blew this week. Got a bunch of mediocre grades back...not a huge deal but just not what I'd like to end the week with. What sucked the most was that I basically had to sit out of homecoming altogether. I had midterms through tuesday and was looking forward to our famous hayride event thursday but, realizing that I had a lab when everyone was leaving, the entire week essentially went down the tubes. Oh well, I've been to every other homecoming/greek week and its been fun, and I should get a couple of more out of my time here. Hopefully my schedule will be easier to combine fraternity stuff with in the coming weeks, I was hoping I wouldn't have to miss weeks at a time.
I guess the good news is that the homecoming football game vs Virginia is tomorrow and my brother and some friends will be in town for it, so that should be fun.
Poker: blah. last night I played and got dominated both in cash games and tournaments for my worst losing night online at approximately -1600. It wasn't too fun, but I guess it does happen. It was just so unreal how all the beats can flood at you at once, when you're never less than a 3:1 favorite to win a hand and you just can't seem to win. Well, as any experienced player knows the only way to battle it out is put the time in so thats what I plan on doing. I sat down again tonight for a session and it went similarly poorly, but I did end up a couple hundred which was certainly preferably to another disaster night. Still hurting from the loss but I was winning consistently and big prior to last night so I have a feeling I'll be able to recover nicely from this. I plan on playing some tommorow during the day and making sunday a poker day as well...this is going to be the first week in several that I am likely going to play the sunday major tournaments on full tilt and pokerstars (the million grtd, 750k grtd and second chance tournaments). Beyond squeezing homework in around the football game/saturday happenings and poker, thats the gist of the weekends plans. I hope I have good news by the end! Thanks for reading.
-Alex
stuff: school kinda blew this week. Got a bunch of mediocre grades back...not a huge deal but just not what I'd like to end the week with. What sucked the most was that I basically had to sit out of homecoming altogether. I had midterms through tuesday and was looking forward to our famous hayride event thursday but, realizing that I had a lab when everyone was leaving, the entire week essentially went down the tubes. Oh well, I've been to every other homecoming/greek week and its been fun, and I should get a couple of more out of my time here. Hopefully my schedule will be easier to combine fraternity stuff with in the coming weeks, I was hoping I wouldn't have to miss weeks at a time.
I guess the good news is that the homecoming football game vs Virginia is tomorrow and my brother and some friends will be in town for it, so that should be fun.
Poker: blah. last night I played and got dominated both in cash games and tournaments for my worst losing night online at approximately -1600. It wasn't too fun, but I guess it does happen. It was just so unreal how all the beats can flood at you at once, when you're never less than a 3:1 favorite to win a hand and you just can't seem to win. Well, as any experienced player knows the only way to battle it out is put the time in so thats what I plan on doing. I sat down again tonight for a session and it went similarly poorly, but I did end up a couple hundred which was certainly preferably to another disaster night. Still hurting from the loss but I was winning consistently and big prior to last night so I have a feeling I'll be able to recover nicely from this. I plan on playing some tommorow during the day and making sunday a poker day as well...this is going to be the first week in several that I am likely going to play the sunday major tournaments on full tilt and pokerstars (the million grtd, 750k grtd and second chance tournaments). Beyond squeezing homework in around the football game/saturday happenings and poker, thats the gist of the weekends plans. I hope I have good news by the end! Thanks for reading.
-Alex
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
bread winning and spending
i think ill go back to dividing the blog into poker and life, i think some people are more interested in one vs the other, and this way I can go into a bit more detail when I want to talk about hands or more about something else etc... anyways
poker: played last night for a few hours, got in 30 tournaments. Not a huge amount but during the week any 30 game day is a good one. Fortunately, I hit for 2k and had my 2nd greater-than-1.5k day in about a week, needless to say I'm on pace to tear it up this month with any more volume and any more running decently well. Hopefully I can keep it up, its nice to be shipping it more consistently.
In other news, my 2nd video for donkit/sharkscope should be posted in the coming week when they figure some stuff out, so be on the lookout for that. If anyone has any feedback for me on the 1st video, please feel free to post it here, PM me on the forums, or email me (Alex.triner@gmail.com)...I'm always looking for ways to improve my n00bness at video making and instruction.
Life: I finished most of the bout of my midterms and what not which is nice, but I have constant english projects which have been keeping me annoyingly busy.
Also, I'm still going through some back issues stemming from the end of last semester, so I'm also really hoping to get back into the gym on a semi consistent basis. Both of these tasks should stay consistent through the semester, so I'm hoping things like my poker schedule, sleep schedule and partying/people schedules will also somehow sync.
The biggest highlight right now is probably the booking of a trip to amsterdam for myself and my brother, as well as any friends who want to join. We are close to confirming details on the trip, and I'm really very excited to head there for the first time. He's been there a few times (and talks about wanting to move there after every return), so I know it'll be a great experience. If any friends want to join, shoot me an IM, its looking like December 26-31st time frame is when cheap airfare is available. As most people know, I love to travel, so going anywhere for the first time is exciting for me, and I've especially wanted to visit Amsterdam for quite some time. I have to say, things look good overall, hopefully I can stay afloat with the english work. Thanks for reading.
-Alex
poker: played last night for a few hours, got in 30 tournaments. Not a huge amount but during the week any 30 game day is a good one. Fortunately, I hit for 2k and had my 2nd greater-than-1.5k day in about a week, needless to say I'm on pace to tear it up this month with any more volume and any more running decently well. Hopefully I can keep it up, its nice to be shipping it more consistently.
In other news, my 2nd video for donkit/sharkscope should be posted in the coming week when they figure some stuff out, so be on the lookout for that. If anyone has any feedback for me on the 1st video, please feel free to post it here, PM me on the forums, or email me (Alex.triner@gmail.com)...I'm always looking for ways to improve my n00bness at video making and instruction.
Life: I finished most of the bout of my midterms and what not which is nice, but I have constant english projects which have been keeping me annoyingly busy.
Also, I'm still going through some back issues stemming from the end of last semester, so I'm also really hoping to get back into the gym on a semi consistent basis. Both of these tasks should stay consistent through the semester, so I'm hoping things like my poker schedule, sleep schedule and partying/people schedules will also somehow sync.
The biggest highlight right now is probably the booking of a trip to amsterdam for myself and my brother, as well as any friends who want to join. We are close to confirming details on the trip, and I'm really very excited to head there for the first time. He's been there a few times (and talks about wanting to move there after every return), so I know it'll be a great experience. If any friends want to join, shoot me an IM, its looking like December 26-31st time frame is when cheap airfare is available. As most people know, I love to travel, so going anywhere for the first time is exciting for me, and I've especially wanted to visit Amsterdam for quite some time. I have to say, things look good overall, hopefully I can stay afloat with the english work. Thanks for reading.
-Alex
Saturday, October 13, 2007
long, long week
I can't express enough how glad I am that this week is over. Honestly, it was just one thing after another. Teachers unhappy that I have a difficult course schedule to accomodate, midterms, people annoying me about stupid things, people owing money, general inconsiderate environments and stressful workloads, I'm just so glad the weekend has arrived. I got to play a small session tonight where MTTs were severely rigged but the 45 man sngs went well and i still turned a few hundred in profit despite a rough go at the big multis that i was playing. it seemed that flips were 80/20s tonight and whenever someone was supposed to be making a move they had a monster....just the way some nights go I guess, can't complain too much since I did come away with profit.
I've spent a good deal of the afternoon also trying to relax a bit and organize and line up more videos for donkit.com/sharkscope as well as work with some students on logistics for the upcoming weeks. Schedules are slowly coming into place. Next week shouldn't be too much easier for me due to another midterm and homecoming, along with trying to keep up steady poker work to keep up a very promising trend thus far. Anyways, looking forward to the weekend hiatus, sucking it up through the week then hopefully having some down time for online stuff/personal stuff/non school stuff.
I highly encourage those SNG and cash grinders that find video instruction useful to buy the videos at www.donkit.com and www.sharkscope.com (poker videos link), I've heard nothing but good things about both sites and the video authors and quality, and I think I'm going to be a strong addition to the selection with my first video being in full swing for sales on both sites finally!
Finally, last night after the bulk of the week was done I got to participate in some fraternity happenings finally and really got to connect with a lot of the members of the pledge class. These kids are really great kids and look promising for the chapter and our future strength, I'm excited to have them ready to go and come aboard, but I do have to say some stern talking-to's never did hurt any of them. They're close and should make us proud. I really am going to make my best effort to see to the end of the pledging process consistently and strongly as I feel this has been some of the best interactions I've had with guys that I'll be able to call brothers soon. I think thats about it in my life for now without any boring detail, thanks for reading.
-Alex
I've spent a good deal of the afternoon also trying to relax a bit and organize and line up more videos for donkit.com/sharkscope as well as work with some students on logistics for the upcoming weeks. Schedules are slowly coming into place. Next week shouldn't be too much easier for me due to another midterm and homecoming, along with trying to keep up steady poker work to keep up a very promising trend thus far. Anyways, looking forward to the weekend hiatus, sucking it up through the week then hopefully having some down time for online stuff/personal stuff/non school stuff.
I highly encourage those SNG and cash grinders that find video instruction useful to buy the videos at www.donkit.com and www.sharkscope.com (poker videos link), I've heard nothing but good things about both sites and the video authors and quality, and I think I'm going to be a strong addition to the selection with my first video being in full swing for sales on both sites finally!
Finally, last night after the bulk of the week was done I got to participate in some fraternity happenings finally and really got to connect with a lot of the members of the pledge class. These kids are really great kids and look promising for the chapter and our future strength, I'm excited to have them ready to go and come aboard, but I do have to say some stern talking-to's never did hurt any of them. They're close and should make us proud. I really am going to make my best effort to see to the end of the pledging process consistently and strongly as I feel this has been some of the best interactions I've had with guys that I'll be able to call brothers soon. I think thats about it in my life for now without any boring detail, thanks for reading.
-Alex
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Schoolaments
Yeah, school work is in full swing now. With a 30-40 page paper and exams coming up, I'll definitely have my share of work to do, but I intend on still getting to extra curricular stuff as well as try to get my time in at the tables. I did have the chance to get in about 50 games yesterday, starting out rough but finishing up strong. Two saturday sessions, a poker video, an hour of coaching and a seat to the sunday million later, i was +1800. Not a bad weekend.
The weekend was relatively uneventful, I was lazy thursday and friday, people always come in and out of the apartment to say hey but I didn't have the energy to go out and certainly didn't feel like drinking, so it wasnt until Saturday that I decided to finally go out on a weekend night in CP for the first time in quite a while. I went with one of my roommates and a few other friends to a party close by that was fun but somewhat uneventful. After, couple of us went back to a friends place to relax, listen to music and smoke a bit, and thats basically how I rounded out my night. I came back, hung out and passed out to planet earth, a fantastic nature show on the discovery channel? Im not sure, I download them because they're so awesome. I highly recommend late night discovery watching.
This week I have a good amount of studying to look forward to, hopefully with some fraternity happenings mixed in, as well as a couple of hours for for video-making and some coaching scheduled. I think my sister might be visiting at the end of the week for a night, so I have that to look forward to also. Thanks for reading.
-Alex
The weekend was relatively uneventful, I was lazy thursday and friday, people always come in and out of the apartment to say hey but I didn't have the energy to go out and certainly didn't feel like drinking, so it wasnt until Saturday that I decided to finally go out on a weekend night in CP for the first time in quite a while. I went with one of my roommates and a few other friends to a party close by that was fun but somewhat uneventful. After, couple of us went back to a friends place to relax, listen to music and smoke a bit, and thats basically how I rounded out my night. I came back, hung out and passed out to planet earth, a fantastic nature show on the discovery channel? Im not sure, I download them because they're so awesome. I highly recommend late night discovery watching.
This week I have a good amount of studying to look forward to, hopefully with some fraternity happenings mixed in, as well as a couple of hours for for video-making and some coaching scheduled. I think my sister might be visiting at the end of the week for a night, so I have that to look forward to also. Thanks for reading.
-Alex
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
