Quiet week

Thanksgiving break was great. Spent a few days down south at my grandparents and got some much needed family time in. It's always nice to see my grandparents, aunt and uncle and family friends, as I probably get down there two or three times a year, tops nowadays. The actual thanksgiving feast was amazing, by far the best meal of the year, and lived up to every ounce of expectation that I had for my grandmother and aunt's excellent cooking.

I came back friday night and got to spend saturday with some close friends from home. I went to lunch near home with a few of them, and later that night my closer friends came to my apartment at school for football, beers, and relaxing. It was definitely a great time. I don't think I'd seen one of my closest friends from home in 6 or so months, and most of them are not around in general so thanksgiving still remains a closely tied holiday.

School has been quiet since friends left and classes started up for the week. Luckily, I have a couple of days off from heavy course work until final exams start up again soon. The bright side is a likely great winter break is on the horizon.

I haven't played much poker...and by not much, I mean I think I've played 2 sessions this month. Pretty pathetic, but I'm going to charge ahead to sneak in platinum for the month regardless and turn up the heat. Then, when break starts, I can continue. Hopefully that plan works, I am certainly capable of disappointing myself. We'll start with 300 games in the next couple days, and go from there. Thanks for reading.


Alex

hrmph

The week was tough, as expected. I got lucky midway through the week and found out that my 30 page final english paper was due monday (tommorow) and not friday. I have gotten to play no poker, and spent about 20-25 hours outside of class doing school related work. Unfortunately, my exams did not go as well as I'd hoped despite starting preparation earlier than I normally do, but hopefully I can stop the bleeding and finish the semester reasonably. There isn't much more that I can think to do beyond what I am already doing, so I'm just going to stick it out.

The plus side to finishing the week was a very very fun weekend. Friday night we had a party in the apartment and had a nice showing, and an overall good time (highlights: my roommate running around in a poncho and an off-duty stripper showing up). Last night, my friend Leah had a "WTF" theme party, where the idea was to dress in something that would elicit a "WTF?!?!" response when walking down the street. With no time to gather an outfit, I went in a nice array of sweat pants with baseball spandex on top, brown dress shoes, gloves, and the very same poncho from the previous night. I must say, I think I may have been the best dressed. My roommate Tim ended up showing up with a few friends and shared enjoyment, with lots of beer and some really good 7 layer been dip. Tim couldn't resist topping off the party with karaoke, and I must say I've never seen anyone get quite so into it before. Another good, fun night.

This week brings gathering the loose ends of my english paper together, go over some coaching stuff, and getting to the last couple days of classes before thanksgiving break. I am very much looking forward to a couple of days off before the last leg of the semester (including birthday!) I don't know that heavy poker volume will continue until after final exams, we'll see how it goes. Thanks for reading.


Alex

The weekend before death

If death came in school form, it would be next week with a 30 page paper and two exams. This won't leave time to do much else, so any desire to go out would have to happen this weekend. I guess it was bound to happen eventually. Thanksgiving break will still be amidst work, so most other things will be waning in the final month+ of the semester.

All that said, I'll either go out and do something tonight or stay in and grind, as I just won't put in much other time this month. I'll still be allowing plenty of time for coaching and videos but won't be getting too indulged until winter break arrives. FTOPS (Full Tilt's big tournament series) recently began so I may be jumping into a few events this weekend, perhaps starting with tonight's 200 buy in pot limit hold em event. We'll see what happens.

After all that is over with I'm really going to have to take proactive steps toward finding a house for next year, as we do not really want to stay in campus apartments anymore and having a house allows for much more freedom and entertainment. Also, since I'll likely only be here for half the year next year, I'd need a place to go in the spring and a house would solve that issue. Moving back home is not something I can ever really foresee, but I do love the area I'm from so I'm not opposed to staying locally for now. TBA, a year off abroad is also in the cards. Thanks for reading.



-Alex

A slow start to November

Well, with all of the BS ive had to deal with in school and what not, I really haven't had time to sit down and start grinding for the month. My main focus is going to have to be getting through school work, so I expect volume to wane for the next several weeks. Coaching/posting/videos will have to make up for lack of table time.

There really hasn't been too much going on thats note-worthy, I'm still trying to qualify for WPT (world poker tour) bahamas so I can spend winter break at a couple of WPT events, as our apartment has already planned to get up to Atlantic city for the world poker open at Borgata in January. I'm extremely excited for this as it will be my first live tournament series as 21+...at long last, in about 5 weeks it'll be time.

Also, my fraternity's semi-formal/dated party is on wednesday in D.C and im planning on going to that, which should be the highlight of the week. Hopefully more exciting updates to come. Thanks for reading.

-Alex