Last 48 Hours
I've done quite a bit since my post from Sunday night / Monday morning. For starters, I did not go to sleep after that post. Given it was 1:30am and I knew I had to be out the door by 6:15am to leave for a wedding, and given the fact I always take at least an hour to fall asleep after a session, I decided I'd just stay up through it. This was definitely a ridiculous decision and not a good one but somehow it didn't kill me.
At 6:15 Monday morning I got into my car and drove an hour to New Brunswick where I picked up my buddy Kyle. We hung out a bit then were on the road to the very southern portion of Delaware for our friend Eric's 12:30PM Monday wedding. Not sure why that was the time and date but what do I care I'm a poker player. We get to the Airbnb we're staying at with a bunch of people around 11:40, only to learn that this place is actually 45 minutes away from the church. We get dressed as quickly as possible and head out, getting there around 12:35 and feeling awkward about having to walk in late. Luckily bride showed up late so there was no problem. Somehow I didn't fall asleep at the wheel for any of that and I wondered how I'd hold up the rest of the day.
I didn't know many people there as we stood outside the church after the wedding but I do have great advice in the form of an icebreaker the next time you're with a group you're unfamiliar with. Have a pair of solar eclipse glasses while a solar eclipse is going on! We were still a little north for totality or whatever they call it but most of the sun got blocked out and it was awesome. From about 2:00-3:00 we were driving to the reception which was located on the 8th floor of a hotel overlooking the ocean, and Kyle and I decided to take full advantage of a law Delaware has that most other states do not. In Delaware it is legal to have open containers in the car, so long as the driver isn't drinking. So we stopped at a liquor store, grabbed a couple of tall boys, and I drove while Kyle drank his and then we switched. It worked out that we switched around 2:40, when the sun was most covered by the moon, and pulled over on the side of the road and viewed the eclipse while sippin on some beers.
The reception was amazing, 3 incredible speeches, 2 by Eric's siblings and 1 by my friend Anthony, amazing food, good music, nice people, it was all just really enjoyable. I drank and danced a ton of course, danced with a cute little 4 year old girl, flirted with her hot German mom, and certainly would have closed the deal if it wasn't for her pesky husband.
Anthony's brother drove Anthony, Kyle and I back to our place to change after the reception since we were all obliterated and then we headed over to Eric's place for the after party. Around 10pm my body started telling me it was all over. I almost fell asleep on the spot a couple times and at that point I realized it was over 36 hours since I last slept. I said my goodbyes and headed back to the Airbnb to crash.
Woke up this morning and had some breakfast then headed to the Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Delaware. We got some lunch and drank some beer. I decided to go all out and get steak to go with my 17%, 2015 Higher Math Vintage beer. It was strong. After that we headed out and I made the 3 hour trek back to New Brunswick before making the hour drive back to Fair Lawn from there. I got back to Fair Lawn around 6:30pm with an upset stomach feeling pretty tired as well. I think I literally drove more hours on that trip than I slept, and that's coming off a sleepless night. BUT THE GRIND DON'T STOP!
Feeling quite good about my game but am realistic about how I'm running. Just like in the 10K I won on Sunday, I won a big pot with AA>AK with 9 left to propel myself up the leaderboard. From there I lost QQ<AA, TT<JJ a couple hands later, and a couple hands after that rivered the winner with QJ>A8 for a vital pot. I started heads up with a 2:1 disadvantage but am feeling good about my heads up game lately. I was no doubt smacked by the deck in some good spots but also threw in some light 3b's, got a lot of bluffs through, and eventually went on to win. I'm up over 9K in the last 2 weeks without a day over $2300 in profit, for perspective on how I'm just binking the dailies each day. Earlier this year I did my damage by running hot in the biggest tournaments on Sundays; this month I'm running hot in everything that's not on Sunday and breaking even on the big day. Not complaining by any means; at the end of the day it doesn't matter how well you run so long as you play well.
I'm overdue to watch some RIO videos so that should come tomorrow. I'm also gonna DM Kevmath or somebody to see if they will count the WSOP 10K from Sunday as a leg of the triple crown or not. Officially it had 78 entrants, but it had 34 "rebuys" which are exactly the same as re-entries on WSOP in that tourney. Triple crown requires you to win 3 tournaments that each have at least 100 runners and a prize pool of at least $10K on 3 different sites in a 1 week span. Since the WSOP 10K is now an 8K, that's going to be incredibly difficult to attain, but I now only need to win a Party 10K (assuming 100 people) in the next 4 days to do it, so if they count WSOP I might not take any days off this week just to chase it for the bragging rights. If they don't count the WSOP score, then it's off to the city on Thursday!
In any case I feel hungrier than I ever have before. I don't feel that lull I usually get after success, that feeling of "I have plenty of money to last me for a few months, why work too hard when I can just be enjoying this lifestyle!" Instead, I'm feeling greedy and want to get it all. I feel confident that downswings aren't going to devastate me anymore and I'll be able to grind through them. I'm ready to actually start making some real money playing this game.