Workin' out!

I do a desk job and my biggest hobby is poker, so I don't exercise too much in the course of a normal day. I've been trying to stay healthy. Both my dad's parents went to heart attacks in their 50s. My mom's mom went last year with a heart attack, too, and my dear old grandpa, while he's still around, had a stroke a few years back.

You might say I have a bit of a family history.

So a few months back my housemate and I decided to get into p90x, some extreme workout program that's supposed to kick your ass into shape in 90 days with a full body circuit regimen, including a diet plan. Can't say I followed the diet much beyond trying to eat healthier and in the better 5 medium meals a day category (and I got a little addicted to chocolate protein shakes. Delicious), but the exercise portion did me well. Sure, my results weren't as drastic as, say, this stuff, but I definitely got some good results. Highly recommended, but it's a grueling workout. After finishing it last month, I've slacked off a bit. Sadly, I haven't done a workout in like 2 weeks.

Funny story about starting, though. The ab workout killed a muscle group I didn't even know the proper name for, much less have ever worked out. I say ab workout, but it's really full core. That's why my hip flexors refused to work the next 3 days. What's a hip flexor? Hell if I know. I just know that you need them to walk upright. Because I looked like an old man at the rife old age of 23.

The receptionist had a good chuckle out of that.

Maybe after I get married I'll start workin' out again. We'll see.

Full Tilt is down? Possible alternatives...

I woke up extra early to get an hour of poker in before work. Little did I know that Full Tilt would be down this morning. Shucks.

What's worse, now that I've cashed out of Stars, I've got nowhere to play! I could always go back to Stars, but where's the fun in that? It's time to try new things.

I think I'll go check out Bodog. Why? Well, it's reputable, the cash games are supposed to be pretty soft (yay, gamblers), and most of all, they have an awesome %110 bonus up to $1100. Sure, at the volume I play now, I'll probably only clear like $100 of that with my play, but you get 10% ($100) instantly when you first deposit. That's a pretty freaking awesome sign-up deal. Plus they have this friends with benefits thing where friend referrals might actually happen, ya know, since they don't do rakeback affiliates.

So I'm going to make an account there.

Edit: Meh. Looks like you can only deposit $500 using a credit card, and they only take visa. Haven't tried yet, so I'm not even sure it'll work. To deposit $1000 you have to use an ewallet that charges 8.8% on deposits AND 10% on withdrawals. Definitely not worth it. We'll see, I might still deposit via credit card for the bonus :)

Further edit: Full Tilt's back with many eurodonks. Forget Bodog for now. Muahahaha.

Boldly Charging Ahead!

I'm moving up to NL50 after just a few thousand hands at NL25. This is happening for a few reasons.

1. I believe that I can beat NL50. One stake to another isn't supposed to be that different, really. Just a bit more aggressive.

2. I have the bankroll. Sure, it isn't on Full Tilt right now, but it's in the bank, ready and waiting to be used.

3. After this last round of working on my game, I believe that I've gotten much, much better. So I'm going to try out higher limits and see if I have enough skill, even if I haven't mathematically proved to be a winner at the previous stake. I've been getting the feeling that I'm leaps and bounds ahead of most or all of my opponents at the tables lately.

4. I've found myself daydreaming about the day that I can actually make a good income off poker. Hell, I'm going to keep studying and playing until I get as high as I can. Getting good enough to become a professional would be absolutely wonderful. It isn't that I hate my current job (it's actually an excellent job that I'm very grateful for), I just don't absolutely love it. I've been inspired by poker pro Kathy Liebert's story. From her web site bio here:

"Becoming dissatisfied with the job, Kathy took the advice of her mother who encouraged her to do something she loved and the money would follow."

This could be a recipe for disaster, of course. But I want to walk the road less traveled, blazing my own trail outside of the Pre-K to elementary to high school to college to 9 to 5 grind. I'm young, I'm shooting for the stars, and I'll be damned if I don't take a few risks to get there.

Thorn's Big Mistakes ... In Real Life!

So, I've brought up drinking in my "big mistakes" section before, but this time it's for my drinking habits in general!

This weekend, we partied. One of my friends just moved into our group house, with plans to replace me after I get married and move out. To celebrate the occasion we decided to get a keg. And visit the liquor store. Grabbed a bottle of wine, too.

I ended up starting to drink with my good buddy... at 4 in the afternoon! I remember watching tv, playing some drinking games, chatting with friends, party party party, night ends when I vomit all over myself and my lovely fiancée helps me clean off and get upstairs to bed.

Of course, that's just what I remember. I got to hear the full story the next day (fiancée Thorn always gets this twinkle in her eye when she gets to tell me my shenanigans of the night before).

There was a rowdy trip to McDonald's where I kept stumbling over and spilling water everywhere. There was the drunken run back home, complete with sporadic attempts by yours truly to relieve myself in probably too-public areas. There was me forgetting right then and there at the party, a McDonald's burger in my belly, that we had even gone to McDonald's, loudly denying the trip had happened despite the many burger bags littered about me.

In short, well, I looked like a doofus, and drank way, way too much. Gotta stop that. My fiancée may be amused now, but you can only clean up after the guy who got trashed and made a mess so many times. I get a feeling my liver will thank me for it later, too.



On the good side, my run-good continues at NL25 (no drinking there, hah)!

Bankroll is up to $780.83. Yummy, pokery goodness.

Ego says post

I'm definitely noticing the blogger tendency to post more when you're winning. I just finished a massive 200-hand heater where I find myself up 4 buy-ins for the day, obliterating my 2 buy-in downswing over the last 800 hands before that as I moved up to NL25. And here I am, ready to brag to the world about it and massage my silly poker ego. It craves the massage. Loves it. Particularly massages with happy endings. Yeah, yeah, bad taste, but I had to work it in there after talking so much with someone else who's lived in Asia tonight (hooray for visiting friends! And seriously, soon-to-be Mrs. Thorn, if you ever read this, I've never gotten nor felt tempted to get one myself).

Anyways, back to poker posting. It really is all about ego, too. I've noticed that my habit of only posting when up has grown in direct relation to my belief in being a winning player. When I was most definitely a huge fish, posting was more analytical, more centered on review and plugging my biggest leaks. On the one hand, I miss the big leaks; they were so simple to spot and so easy to see improvement in. On the other hand, screw the nostalgia, my poker ego has self-esteem, baby!

Keepin' it loose,

Thorn
25NL DOMINATOR (so far)

Hooray Bonuses!

I love rakeback, and bonuses. Full Tilt's are so easy to clear with Rush Poker.

And they're the sole reason I'm up since the last update. Hah. I feel like an advertisement for Full Tilt.

"I couldn't beat the games, but with Full Tilt's exclusive bonus and rakeback offers, I can eke out a meager profit, now! Play Rush Poker! It sure clears bonuses fast, jeepers."

Hands Played since August 27: 17,064
Table Results: -$11.36
Bonuses+Rakeback: $69.67
Total Winnings: $58.31
Current Bankroll: $638.11

Moneyin' the VeryJosie!

Last week, as I was looking around the tournaments on Full Tilt before the Mookie started, I saw the Very Josie Poker tournament. It's a KO, double stack structure, just how I like it, and I've heard a bunch about it from Waffles's blog, so I decided to register!

And I waited.

And waited.

... and then the tournament canceled because I was the only entrant. :(

9:00 PM EST, Wednesday... that's right. Where did ol' Thorn go so wrong?

It turns out the Very Josie is only held the first Wednesday of each month! Boy, did I feel silly being the only one who didn't know what was going on. The ever-spunky, lovely Josie herself cleared that up for me, though.

Tonight, I got in on the right day, at the right time. And I'm glad I did! I ended up taking 3rd, finishing just in the money, and taking one bounty, courtesy of wolfshead.

I ended up being taken out by the always pleasant Mojo, who at this very moment is STILL battling heads up for the win. In hindsight, I misplayed the hand I went out on, and Mojo was there to collect.

Mojo 3x raised from the button, and I just 2.4x 3-bet him to put half my stack in with 66. He had pretty great odds to call me since antes were in effect, so he did, he hit the flop, called my inevitable shove, and voila, here we are. The best play would've been just shoving pre-flop so I would have a bit more fold equity. Ah well. I'll remember for next time.

Update: Just watched him take it down. Congrats, Mojo!