5 Days In

Not too much in the form of excitement thus far. I have played two tournies, both 335 nl holdem buyins. The first was on Day 1 and had 1600 players paying 120 spots, I finished around 225ish. I never had big chips and ended up pushing on the big blind with J10 and ran into KK...draw dead on turn, bad beat. The second tourney was earlier today. It had 800 players paying 72 spots, I finished 85th, sweet. Again, I never had big chips. I was floating around average most of the tourney never really getting good situations or good hands. I lost a key hand with 100 left racing 88 against AQ blind on blind after a goon shoved off my raise after everyone folded. I could have folded but figured I was way ahead or was racing at worst and givin the top heavy prize pool this seemed to be a good spot to become a big chip count. After losing when the ace flopped I became short stacked, built back a bit with blind steals, then found 1010 in blinds against the cutoff raise. I shoved and he called a somewhat big raise with A7 sooooted, door card ace. I love tournaments 21-40 minute levels played = $0

Cash games have been ok. The games are decent, but with exception to Day 1, I haven't hit much and seem to lose most of my 'gambly' pots vs short stackers (gambly referring to losing medium/big pots when chips on flop where I'm not at least 80% favorite). I had a bad day Friday losing over 5k, but still managed to pull an overall win close to 10k (in 3 long sessions and 2 short sessions on the tourney days). Could be better could obviously be worse. The main thing is I feel I'm playing solid agressive and my reads are on so with a little luck I good things should be just around the corner.

The weather has been the shits since arriving, however much better than 40 below. Its supposed to be sunny and warm Tuesday and Wednesday so probably will head out golfing one of those day. This should be good to clear the mind, take a break from poker, and take some cash off my buddy.

Tomorrow is the stud tournament. If I get up earlier enough to go for a workout (yes workout...I'm trying to drop a few pounds with daily exercise and good eating) and the cash games are a little slow I will probably play. I can't imagine the field or the prize pool will be big, but better than playing 10-20nl with a bunch of monday morning nits.

I'll try to report back by the end of the week.

Joe

Snowbirdin

There is not too much on the poker front to tell since my trip to Costa Rica. I have spent the majority of time in Winnipeg hangin out with the family and friends. During this time I did spend a bit of time playing online, mostly on pacific poker. I found the games to be rather soft. The site has alot of sports betters who generously make donations on a regular basis. It has been a pretty good run.

I did go to Vegas for a week with Kathy and Braeden recently, from Jan 2-9th. It was a good time and we spent the majority of time doing things I normally wouldn't do in Vegas, including an almost fatal trip to the rides atop the Stratosphere. No real gambling stories to speak of as I only logged one short session.

Tomorrow morning I'm off to LA for the LA Classic. I'm going down with my buddy Todd and we plan to play there for the entire tournament, which lasts till late February. From there I will be heading to Vegas for the Wynn Classic. In all, I will be down south until the end of March. I will be playing some tournaments, but still focusing the majority of my effort grinding cash games. I plan to write a post at least once a week so look in from time to time. Feeling real good going into this trip, confidence is up and my game is sharp so hopefully a couple TV tables are in my near future.

Joe