I've been doing a lot of this lately. From sitting at the tables grinding away, to heading out to Foxwoods to play in a live event, to even just writing a simple blog, I've been trying to do a little too much. As a result I think I've been a little less than authentic both with my play and writing these blogs. I've been taking note of that lately and just saying, "Ok, next hand" or "Ok, move on" to myself to keep things moving along. So since I've missed a few blogs lately let me update you on the goings on of my life lately.

First and foremost, I've been given and interesting opportunity. In order to complete my degree requirements I have to write a paper dealing with my major. I managed to talk my advisor into letting me do a paper on the math of poker. My goal is to try and "prove" that poker is a game of skill and not luck. Now this is a subject many of us have attempted and I'm not trying to break ground here per say, however I would really like to rock this paper out and try to rep the industry as best as I can. This paper isn't going to be ridiculously long so I do have to kind of pick my spots here. I was initially going to write a paper on tournament play but the more I think about it, the more cash game poker makes sense. I think it would be easier to deal with cash games since I've been really concentrating on cash game poker more lately. I'm open to other thoughts and I'll be posting sections of the paper online to see what kind of feedback you guys have. If you want me to put something in, or think there is something I should talk about please let me know.

With my prop bets (at least the cash game ones) finally over I'm back to grinding out 6max NLHE. At first I'll be honest, going back to 6max after playing a lot of FR was tough. I took some pretty big hits in my first two sessions but I've been able to get myself back on track lately. I'd like to try and book $3K-$5K over the next few months and try to put a big dent in that number by October when the World Poker Finals start up. I'm also going to be working more on my MTTs as well over the next stretch. I'll prob mix in some sattys to some Sunday majors to help build the BR and give me a shot in some bigger events.

That's about a wrap for the poker side of things. I'll be writing more often now with the paper. Also I'm going to tease this, I have an epic idea for when I get the degree in 7 weeks for how to celebrate. I'll go into more detail later but I will say this, I will be filming it and I will be posting the video here. For now I'm focused on the WPF and the miniFTOPS coming up, time to nut up or shut up!.

I've said this many times before, I feel like cash game poker is the main way you earn your living as a pro. From the more flexible hours, to the potential to have much, much shorter days cash games just make a lot of sense. I have been very focused on the cash game side of the equation for most of this year, trying to develop my skills to a point where I could start relying on cash game income more, as well as take better advantage of my rakeback deals. I have noticed one major problem with me playing cash games more, it's absolutely more boring to talk about than tournaments.

Every now and then though you have a session playing cash games where everything just goes your way. This past Monday was one of those sessions. A buddy of mine sent me a text at about 9 in the morning which read and I quote, "If you're awake, I'm heading down to Foxwoods today." It had been raining for a full day at this point, I had no other real plans, and I had just come off of a big weekend of filming so I was itching to play anyway. I drove in and arrived around 12:30PM to the casino. The place was utterly packed, I've never seen it as busy as it was on Monday since the World Poker Finals last year. The waiting list for a 1/2 NL seat was something like 40 people deep. Now the one saving grace was that there just weren't a ton of tables running at this point so once new dealers started coming in the lists started moving. I still didn't start playing until about 2PM, but it could have been much worse.

I played for a 6 hour session and had only two big pairs, AA once in a small pot and KK once in my biggest losing pot of the day. Usually that's the start of a bad session story, but my tale has a very happy ending. I was hitting monsters left and right. My small pairs were making sets, my suited connectors were flopping big draws and getting there, some of those were actually just flopping the stone nuts. One such hand had a very funny quote in it. UTG raised to 12 and I looked at JTo from MP, I had about $300 infront of me so I opted to try and play a big pot, plus this game was notorious for people calling behind. I got one other caller and the flop comes:

Qx9c8c

UTG bets out $40 and here's where I'm not too sure what's up. If I call I'm giving the guy behind a chance to chase if he has a flush draw with about 4-1 on his money (a little less thanks to the rake). If I come out blasting here it screams big hand, at the very least AQ trying to blast away a draw or maybe a hand like QTcc. I wanted to try and win a big pot here and I thought UTG is def firing the turn so I opted to call. The third player just folded and the 5c hit the turn. We got it all in on the turn where UTG had AQ. The quote of the day portion of the story come from the guy who folded who said when the hands were turned up, "I folded a club draw. Had to fold since you called, I wasn't getting the right odds." Um...ok ship the pot then. I left the session +$671 so I went and got myself a $20 sushi dinner over at Shrine to celebrate then went on my merry way.

Cash games are much better in the moment than they are talking about later. I've had some funny things happen to me at the tables before, a guy standing up and his pants falling down is likely the top of that list, but it's always "sexier" and more exciting to talk about MTTs. By the time the MiniFTOPS rolls around I'll have some more to talk about but until then, back to the salt mines.

The Foxwoods Mega Stack series has been an interesting series. Running a few times during the year the biggest series happens to be the on starting in mid August. Not much else is going on in the poker world, or in the area for that matter, so the events tend to attract some large crowds and some big prize pools. The downside is Foxwoods has a "never say no" policy when it comes to having player enter the tournament. Both years I have played in this event the same things have happened, some tables have had to play 11-handed, the tournament takes up a ton of the regular cash game tables, and I get to meet some really interesting characters.

This year's Mega Stack featured some serious professionals, if nothing else from a notoriety stand point. Bernard Lee was signed not long ago as the official spokesperson for the Foxwoods Poker Room. I'm not sure what exactly he's been doing, but since his signing all of the events Foxwoods has held have been improvements on previous year's events. I'm not sure if Lee had a hand in getting some of the names that were in the event but there were some impressive names around for this series. While waiting to register I caught sight of Lee talking to Robert Varkonyi, the 2002 ME champ, and his wife Olga. Those two are usually around for some of the smaller buy in events in the area. Also during the series, Chris Moneymaker, Darvin Moon, and this year's ME chip leader Johnathan Duhamel are scheduled to arrive. Someone claims to have seen Darvin at the $340 event, but I can't be sure of that.

When I finally got my seat I was really liking my table. The on downside is I was right next to the line for alternates waiting to be called, but from a player standpoint I liked what my table had to offer. One lady in particular was priceless. I was in seat 3, talking to some of the guys sitting to my right when the woman in seat 5 says, "Hey can I ask you guys a question?" The gentleman in seat 2 decided to talk with her.

"Sure what's up?"

"Eric Lindgren" she says.

"Um...yeah what about him?"

"Do you have his phone number?"

The conversation only got funnier from there. She went on to say how he's not that good looking, but his sense of humor makes him really sexy. Her pick up line was the best part. "First thing I'm going to do is tell him he sucks. Then I'm going to ask him out." I can't possibly explain how hard it was to take this woman seriously or to keep from laughing at this point. She proceeded to play some pretty poor poker, making check raises for value with 3rd pair on board, floating A-high for two streets for big bets when way behind. All the good stuff you love to see from other players at your table, sadly I couldn't get into any pots with her before she went broke.

Almost 1300 runners was the final tally of the event. Other than a cool story from the lovely lady in seat 5, nothing of note really happened. I won a big pot early when my set boated up v a straight on the river, had about 22K at my peak (15K starting stack), ran a bluff against a calling station (didn't know he was a calling station at the time obv), and then lost a flip 55 v AK to get KOed about 4.5 hours into the day. I was a little miffed at myself for making a bad bluff v the calling station but you live and learn. I opted not to play in the $560 on Thursday so I'm done with the Mega Stack for this time around. At least I got a funny story out of it!

I've been getting myself fired up for the Mega Stack series which starts later today at Foxwoods. This is the event that spring boards me right into the rest of the year. From mid August right up until November there are some big events on my calendar and I want to be ready for all of em. It was right about this time last year that things really picked up for me and that momentum carried me all the way to a big score at the World Poker Finals in October. Now with the schedule winding up again, I'm excited to see what will happen this time around.

The first big thing on the horizon is the Mega Stack series at Foxwoods August 17th-23rd. It's a series of 3 events that runs a few times a year, one $340 buy in, one $560 buy in, and the big $1650 over the weekend. The smaller buy in events are 2-day MTTs while the $1650 is set up for a 3-day run. These events are very deep stacked pretty much from start to finish. They don't miss any of the standard blind levels for a 2-day event, there is plenty of play late in the day, and the prize pools are guaranteed which brings in more than enough players to make a deep run worth while. Last year the $340 event had over 1100 runners, we were playing 11-handed at one point early on just so everyone at the table would fit. First place ended up being around $75K, if that doesn't get the blood pumping at a mid stakes grinder, you have no pulse. I'd like to get into the $340 and the $560 but we'll see how the first event goes before I make plans on playing event 2.

After the Mega Stack, the MiniFTOPS starts up in early September. Online poker, specifically MTTs has taken a backseat for me recently. The swings and the grind were starting to get to me and so I took a little bit of a break. I plan on reloading my online accounts by the end of the month so I can once again start grinding my life away. For now though I'm concentrating more on cash games, rakeback, and live poker to pad my savings account and pay off some bills. Ideally I'll play something like 10-12 events in the MiniFTOPS. I've been profitable in the past during the series, but never to a huge extent. A couple of top 100 finishes to make a few hundred on the series is about all I've been able to muster so far. A big score can't be too far away.

Starting in early October the World Poker Tour comes to town with the Foxwoods World Poker Finals. This series is the WSOP for me. This is my backyard, my hometown casino, it's where I began this crazy career of mine and it's always going to be a special series to me. This year I plan on taking another step forward in my development by getting a seat into the WPT main event. That is going to be the main focus of the 4 week event for me. I was on the rail at the Final Table last year and it only made me want to work even harder to get there. I'm a better player today than I was last year (aka I have the balls to trust my instincts now) and I'm excited to try and take that next step.

In closing, as I leave for Foxwoods for event 1 of the Mega Stack I leave you with a quote that's been in my head for a few weeks now. I've had some tough times personally but there is one thing I've tried to live my life by:

"Don't let fear of striking out keep you from swinging."
-Yogi Berra

I'm calling out my shot, let's see if I can back it up. If not, then at least I have the stones to try.

Well it's that time of year again. The Foxwoods Mega Stack is back for another go around, the World Poker Finals are around the corner, and I am getting back to business again. Over the past few months poker has for one reason or another taken a back seat. Yes this is still my main and realistically only source of income but I have enough in savings to pay my bills and with the FT at Mohegan under my belt I feel much better about being a tad lazy. But with the Mega Stack less than a week away it's time to sharpen back up.

I'm right now planning on for sure playing in the $340 event on the 17th, if things go well I'll probably stick myself into the $560 event as well on the 19th. There is an event over the weekend, the big boy buy in $1650 event. It's unlikely for a few reasons that I'll be playing in that particular event.

This is probably going to be a shorter blog because I just haven't been playing much lately. I don't want to get into why right now but I just wanted everyone who reads these to know. I will say I started talking to the same counselling center that I went to after my grandparents passed away a few years ago. I've just been lacking that killer instinct at the table so I've been protecting my bank roll from any lack luster play. I'll be ready for competition next week, but just the daily grind has been a little tough.

I don't want to whine, I feel like I've done more than enough of that in blogs past. I just wanted to let people know why I haven't been blogging as much. I'm not burnt out, just going through a rough patch and trying to protect myself for doing something stupid with my bankroll. After all, alcohol is great for forgetting problems :).