Hi Fellow Rounders: Been a long time since I blogged. Not much going on in the poker world. With work being the way it is, Volume is probably down 50-70% from a year ago. But here's what I got:

PokerStars: Same old shit from shinola. When I'm all in and ahead -- I lose. When I'm all in and behind -- I lose. Seriously, if I played some carny game or some crappy pit game at a casino and lost like this, I'd e walking -- no running. But I keep feeding 'Stars and 'Stars takes, but never gives.

Absolute Poker: I invested $100 on this site. Lost my first 12 S&Gs in all ways imaginable. Finally broke the schneid, but I've lost 50% of my stake. Another unwinnable site where I lose 60% of the scenarios where I am dominating (i.e., I'm a 70% favorite or better). On flips and dog situations, I'm estimating I lose about 95% of these encounters. Depressing.

Live: Played at Fort McDowell last week. It was a $30 Bounty NLH touyrnament. It was an interesting format -- play 3 hours of live that day and bounty's were $50. But if you didn't play any cash, you only got $5 for a knockout. I logged an hour and a half of 3/6 and that increased my bounty to $10 (assuming I could get a bounty). Satrting Stack is 10K in chips. Fifty entries with 5 cashing.

Shuffle Up and Deal. From Hand 1, I did not get a single starting hand that was within my [tight] opening hand criteria. Orbit after Orbit I got hands like 9-Deuce and 6-Trey. But I hang around and make the final two tables. Blinds were up to 2000/4000 and I am 1 left of UTG when I got JT-Off. For me JT-offsuit is unplayable, but with just over 10,000 chips left, it was as good as I was ever going to get that night. Gent calls with AQ. I flop a Ten, but I got out of my seat anyway as I expected the Ace to land, which it did on the river. That's two straight tournaments where I was card dead for an entire tourney.

I was hoping to get one more tournament in, but our meeting was cut a day short and I had the unenjoyable experience of flying coast to coast 2 days for a 1-day trip.

While I still love to play, poker just seems lifeless and devoid of excitement anymore. I am at the point now where I am knowledgeble enough to know when I am going to get my money in good, but my great plays lead to outcomes that defy statistical probability. I'm kind of resigned to the fact that WSOP 2011 is not going to happen next year. How can I win or cash in a $1500 NLH tournament against pros when I can't win a $1.10 Double-or-Nothing on PokerStars.