Thanks Josh...that's a big reason for me to stay home as well. With all the NJ guys going out to Vegas the games become even softer than they already are. I'll have to decide when it gets closer but I always seem to convince myself to stay home. That being said, this is the first time I've been both 21 and single (and not in college) so I feel less obligation to stay home than I have in the past. At the end of the day I think it's going to cost me more than I want to spend to go out but I haven't ruled it out yet.

If you do decide to make the trip I would like to get a piece of your action if you were to sell.

FWIW last year was my first trip out there and it will now be a yearly occurrence for me if only for a week so I can play all the senior events just +ev for a poker player.

You got it man. Also, the one week thing has been something I've thought of. Would still have to pay for flight and everything but wouldn't be as expensive as staying the summer, I'd get the feel for it and see if I wanted to do it longer the next year, and I could potentially schedule a week where I'd be able to max out on the good tourneys I'd be able to play. With satties running on WSOP NJ to some of the smaller events maybe I'll just try to win something there and then plan my week around it.

Poker

Didn't play yesterday other than firing 2 bullets of $200 Stars major on my phone and lost both. Was in a bad mood for a few reasons last night and went to bed early and annoyed. Made a list of things I wanted to do concerning poker. I think I've been feeling happier with the running but without any real poker results I feel mildly stressed about money and I feel like something is missing. I think if I return to form in poker and start succeeding again at it, AND I continue to run and get stronger physically and mentally (lots of mental toughness needed for distance running), I'll start to really feel like myself again. Some things I wrote down last night included playing every Sunday, no matter what, no excuses; playing 5 days per week no matter what, no excuses, because if I feel too tired to do that or feel like it's too mentally draining, then I need to get a new job; and more studying. Eating well is going to be really important as well, as I'm naturally just way hungrier all the time than I used to be since the running takes so much energy.

Happy with my mindset through today's session. Started off well in most MTTs and then got a little nasty. In the WSOP $100 button shoved a pretty short stack with 5 left and I iso'd 25BBs or so with KK in the SB. BB covered and woke up with AK and flopped an ace to bust me in 4th. Pot was for a lot of chips with a little over $900 to 1st (cashed for $300). Also bubbled the Stars $100 when JJ couldn't beat AK or A6s for a lot of chips as well (17th, top 15 paid $210 or more, winner got $2500). But I just don't feel too stressed about any of it right now which seems like a good sign. I managed to run up a stack in the WSOP $10K and as I was typing this sentence the final table started. Currently 2/9 with $2750 up top. Big hand came when I opened 66 UTG, BB defended 55 and the flop came 652r . A win in this would be nice to get the yearly net back into the profits (yup, down money so far this year, but very limited volume while I took off a lot of days to get used to running again). I do feel confident that I'll feel fine regardless of result though, which is a nice thing to feel while playing. A lot less stress when that can be where your head's at.

I've been sort of reevaluating how I want to react to variance. I think I lost some fire from my competitive side when I tried to stifle my emotions when it came to winning vs losing. I'd still feel frustration from the losing (though I'd try hard to contain it) but I wouldn't feel excited and happy from winning, and I think that part is important to keep you wanting to play. So I'm letting myself feel frustrated from losing and I'm letting myself get excited about winning. The only thing I do focus on is that the frustration from losing doesn't affect me at all while I'm playing. If I'm mad after the session is over, whatever, I'll live. But being mad while I'm playing will cost me money and that can't happen. So far so good today. 2/9 in this 10K on break with 40BBs, so hopefully I have good news to report back with tomorrow.

Running

I finished last week at 42.9 total miles ran at 6:54/mile. I'm pretty proud of that. The pace isn't really so important but it being as fast as it was is really encouraging, especially given that I'm very rarely ever pushing that hard on the runs.

Today I ran the longest run I've done in over 5 years. Finished up 9.1 miles in 63:51 (or 1:03:51 to make it look longer) for an average mile of 7:01. I felt pretty tired on the last 2.5 miles or so but I guess that's to be expected. I'll be running a 5K on Saturday and I'm really interested to see what my time is like. I haven't put in any sort of interval training; every run I've done during this streak (which is now at 29 days) has just been pure distance. Every once in a while I've picked up my pace to attempt to get the course record on a segment, and I've seen that I can run 6:00 pace on those stretches without really burning myself out for the rest of the run; I just settle right back into 7:00 pace after. So if I'm going a half mile at 6:00 pace and am able to just relax and run the next 5 miles at 7:00/mile, I wonder how I'll do when I'm just ripping off 3 miles as fast as I can. The race will be in Glen Rock and it looks like a majority of the first 2 miles is uphill, with the last mile having a stretch of somewhat steep downhill. Really looking forward to the race. Will probably just do runs in the 5-7 mile range each day leading up to the race. Next week I might start sprinkling some interval training in to work on speed. Who knows, maybe eventually I'll get in good enough shape to start making some money from these races

Hmm.. what kind of shoes do you run in? Minimalist zero drop? With a wide toe area so your toes and tendons can splay out?
Do you run outside with a smartwatch? What kind is it?

"I think I lost some fire from my competitive side when I tried to stifle my emotions when it came to winning vs losing. I'd still feel frustration from the losing (though I'd try hard to contain it) but I wouldn't feel excited and happy from winning, and I think that part is important to keep you wanting to play."

I think it's important to take pride and be excited about winning a tournament. I also think if you played your best and didn't win or cash not to get upset with the outcome.

just my 2 cents

I bought new shoes last month after my dog ripped up my old ones. They are Nike Zoom Vomero 11's. I've never been big into shoes so I always just go to the Princeton Running Company and ask the employees there what they think is best for my foot (they are very good at working with each individual to figure out what's best). I have flat feet and these shoes have some nice padding. I also have a very narrow foot and this shoe seemed to "hug" my feet the best of the 4 or 5 pairs I checked out. Also, it was on sale, so that sealed the deal for me .

I have a very old Garmin Forerunner 110, old enough that the website I use (Strava) often miscalculates the data with this watch. So I now run with both my phone and the watch, and use the Strava GPS app to record my run. The watch gives me splits on the fly, but if I only use the watch, Strava will record a 6:58 mile as a 6:15 mile randomly and I hate that. The app seems to work fine.

I agree with both sentences, but the second sentence is much easier said than done! That's the whole struggle for me Doug--I don't consciously choose to get upset with outcomes, I just do. That being said, I felt much more mellow with a very disappointing 8th place in the WSOP 10K last night, and I think a lot of it has to do with running. Recap to come!

Poker

Got 8th in the 10K last night after going to the FT 2/9. We played the final table pretty long with shorties doubling a bunch and me staying pretty much neutral around my 350K stack. There was a pretty big fish with the chip lead which seemed pretty sweet, and the two very solid players with chips were both on my right, so it was a really good spot to be in.

The fish opens UTG1 to 24K at 6K/12K with 420K to start the hand. I elect to flat KJhh on the button with 360K to start the hand. The other stacks at this point are 355K, 184K, 171K, 159K, 142K, and 97K. The WSOP 10K is very top heavy, with payouts at $2750, $1600, $910, $710, $610, $510, $390, $250.

I want to play pots against the weaker player and with only 30BBs or so, a flat seems much better than a 3b. He's running 38/10/3.9 over 965 hands with a 36% fold to 3b, so I expect him to have a lot of strong hands in his opening range, along with some random stuff that doesn't make much sense. Blinds fold and flop comes KJTdd. He bets 55,500 very quickly. Pot is 74K, so he clicked the 3/4 pot button. I remember immediately thinking I wanted to discount AQ from his range because I don't think that hand is going as big as he went. The bet felt a lot like the kind of bet a rec player makes when they don't want to get "cracked." I just don't think AQ feels vulnerable enough on this board to do that and he's going to try harder to get value with it. So if we can discount AQ, we're left with 1 combo of KK, 1 combo of JJ, and 3 combos of TT as hands that we lose to (5 total). We also have 6 combos of AA and combos of AK (14 total). I also wouldn't be too surprised to see him show up with KQ (12 combos) or QQ (6 combos) here, with the idea that he wants to win the pot now but the knowledge that he has equity against most hands, so the impulse to just mash the big bet button overcomes any other thoughts he might have.

So he has a bet of 55.5K in front of him with a pot of 74K and I have 335K back on this KsJdTd board with KhJh. I elected to shove for value. My reasoning being that if he has a hand like AA, AK, KQ, QQ, he's not going to fold, and I'm going to get value. It's a disaster if he has one of the 5 combos of sets, or if he did just decide to bet the nuts this way, but I decided the value I get from those other hands makes it worth it. Also, if he just folds now I have 465K and over 100K more than 2nd, which is not a bad result with this hand on this wet board. Interested in what everyone thinks about this. Do we need to just flat due to ICM? If we flat and get a really wet turn are we just now folding? Is there any raise size other than all in?

Result:

I marked a bunch of hands yesterday and look forward to attempting to study properly again soon. I might start throwing hands up on here again in the future like I started doing a while back.

Running

Just ran 5 today after the 9er yesterday. It was raining and under 40 degrees so it felt like even more of a reason to take it easy. I felt pretty sluggish throughout the first 3 miles. My watch had me at 7:13, 7:10, 7:01 through the first 3, which were mostly uphill, but good ol Strava gave me credit for 7:11, 7:03, 6:53. I do tend to believe the Strava app more though since my watch is admittedly a bit old. The first 3 miles were mostly uphill though, and with 4 and 5 being downhill I began to pick up a little on the 4th before I just let it rip on the 5th. 6:54 4th mile was followed by me opening my stride and just letting my legs fly. I made sure to stay in control though; complete control over my breathing, arm swing, knee lift, etc. I didn't want this to be an out on control sprint, so I just ran like I normally do with a little extra get up. Came through the 5th mile at 6:26 to finish the run at 6:53 pace. Felt good. 30 days of running in a row with a total of 143 miles ran in that span. Gotta keep working hard to avoid injury and eat properly to have energy to put the grind in at night.

143 mi?! Solid, keep it up man!

Thanks dude! It's crazy how 3 miles felt like a lot a month ago and now 5 miles is an easy run. It's really as simple as putting in the work.

Poker

Back to back brutally close days!! Today I was in for about $1200 with 2 tournaments left; the $250 Super Tuesday and the $100 Second Chance, both on Stars. I had 5 and 7 BBs in each respectively at one point, both before the money. So on one hand, I should be pretty happy with 9th in the Super and 7th in the Second Chance (9 and 12 paying in each respectively). And I shouldn't feel too bad about a loss of under $300 when $1200 was staring me in the face. But both bustouts were pretty brutal.

With 90K at 2500/5000 in the Super, it folded to a reg in the CO who opened to 10K. I had QQ on the button and made the standard shove. There were 3 stacks all around mine, the CO opener had about 130K to start, and the other 4 stacks were something like 200K, 200K, 300K, 600K. So when he called with 99 (super standard cooler), I was in a pretty sweet spot to be back in the middle of this tournament with over $5K up top. I've noticed my natural reaction in these spots is to dread the worst, so I've just been trying to be very positive and optimistic as often as possible. Just a quick thought like "you're winning this, relax, let's go" tends to calm me down. I know it's silly but it relaxes me and I think it's something I'm going to continue to try to do in the future. Flop and turn came sweat free and the river was a 9. Pretty pretty brutal. Mincash for $550 or so.

In the Second Chance I shoved 20K effective in the SB at 1K/2K with K3o on the stone bubble with 13 left. I had 24K to start the hand and BB had 20K and snapped off with T9s. There were 2 other stacks at 20K. Guess I shoulda known this guy was super oi ICM. Might be a shove anyway? That's an interesting problem to think about; if we know guy is going to ignore ICM and maybe even make a -chipEV call (if I'm shoving 70% of hands he has 48.4% equity so with antes and his BB already in I guess it shows slight profit strictly from chipEV standpoint) am I still supposed to shove a hand like K3 when I'll have to flip a ton on the bubble? Anyway, he won and I was left with 4K at 2Kbb. I folded a few hands then found a double, and another, then bubble burst, and another, and I had like 75K going to the final table at 3Kbb.

I chipped down but found a couple ladders when it folded to my button at 4Kbb with 7 left. I shoved 41K w A9dd, BB calls with A5o. Given I'd just busted the Super it's easy to feel pessimistic and like luck is against you, but I want to change my attitude in that sense, so again I told myself that I'm gonna hold and try to win this thing for $2K for a nice winning day. Flop came 763 giving him a gutter, but the turn J gave me a flush draw, reducing his outs from 7 to 5. River was an offsuit 4 and that was that.

Good summary of the way poker variance works today. I could easily have lost $1200 but I "ran good." I could easily have made several thousand but I "ran bad." At the end of the day what does it really mean anyway. All that being said, I'm still down $2K on the year and am getting close to needing to withdraw money from bankroll. I really don't want to do that until I'm in the green again so that sometimes makes beats like these sting more. But I just keep telling myself it's part of the job, and the only way to feel more comfortable financially is to continue to put volume in and not be afraid of failure. Back to the grind tomorrow. Despite some minor frustration today I'm feeling encouraged and optimistic about the future.

Last thing...I really sputtered my way into this one but I've obtained my 500K badge on P5s. Half million in online earnings in my career now. Now to get to a million!

^Congrats on the 500k man that's a sick accomplishment. Just keep at it, I have similar thoughts when I'm running bad where I feel like I just expect the beat to come. But as long as you keep making rational decisions and plus EV moves it'll turn.

GL rest of the month

Keep grinding you'll get past this. I do realize it's much easier for me to accept variance since it's not my full time job but it's a big part of the game.

Huge congrats on the 500k achievement, sputtering over the line doesn't diminish this great accomplishment!!

Excercise is hugely important, I run + lift every day I play and I grind 6-7 days per week. If I can't find room to work out that day I don't allow myself to play. The kj hand was fine either to shove or flat ,both equally good plays. The guy who called with 9t was an idiot , not because of ICM but because even as chip EV it's not a good call. ICM doesn't really exist in mtts anymore I know you don't believe me but it's true, unless your at the ft and there is like multiple guys with sub 5 BB stacks and u are 15+ with some other players similar just play chip EV from start to finish.
You are spending 1200 per day but playing 250's and 100's? I spend about 1200 on a 15$ avg buyin. I would imagine then that your daily volume is still really low, this just means your downswings last that much longer. Are there no valuable games in the 20-30 range you are skipping?

Thanks for the encouragement guys. And coinflipper, my volume is low pretty much because it's not like ROW online. The $100s are 10Ks. The $250 is PokerStars NJ's version of the Super Tuesday (it's the only $250 I'm playing that day) and the $20 MTTs (which I do throw in there sometimes) are getting $500 up top max. If I could play a ton of $20s all the time with big fields I'd probably be down with that but it's just not realistic when the player pool is what it is. But today I played a $20 1.5k, a $25 1k, a $10r 1k, etc. I'd just rather focus on the bigger buy ins than try to squeak out a little extra value most of the time.

Poker

Up and down so far today but I really like where my head's at. I allow myself to get frustrated but to keep it in perspective. I allow myself to get excited when good things happen. I'm forcing myself to not get into that "woe is me, I'm so unlucky" state of mind ever.

Here's my bust hand from the Party 10K today, with 11 players left. 12 paid and the bubble lasted forever so I am glad to cash for the $225, but this guy's line was too funny not to post the hand:

***** Hand History for Game 160951969 *****
NL Texas Hold'em $109 USD Buy-in Trny:106417573 Level:18 Blinds-Antes(1,500/3,000 -375) - Thursday, February 09, 00:00:07 EST 2017
Table MAJOR. Daily $10K [Re-Entry] (106417573) Table #1 (Real Money)
Seat 7 is the button
Total number of players : 6/9
Seat 4: Bayan ( 64,427 )
Seat 1: Gustavo ( 107,383 )
Seat 5: drzngl ( 125,612 )
Seat 2: mj23style ( 38,734 )
Seat 7: vsamba99 ( 108,034 )
Seat 6: wiggles66 ( 81,027 )
Trny:106417573 Level:18
Blinds-Antes(1,500/3,000 -375)
Gustavo posts ante [375]
mj23style posts ante [375]
Bayan posts ante [375]
drzngl posts ante [375]
wiggles66 posts ante [375]
vsamba99 posts ante [375]
Gustavo posts small blind [1,500].
mj23style posts big blind [3,000].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to mj23style [ Jc 8c ]
Bayan folds
drzngl folds
wiggles66 folds
vsamba99 raises [6,000]
Gustavo folds
mj23style calls [3,000]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9c, 9h, 5c ]
mj23style checks
vsamba99 bets [7,875]
mj23style is all-In [32,359]
vsamba99 calls [24,484]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ts ]
** Dealing River ** [ 2s ]
vsamba99 shows [ Qc, 3s ]a pair of Nines with Queen kicker.
mj23style shows [ Jc, 8c ]a pair of Nines.
vsamba99 wins 80,468 chips from the main pot with a pair of Nines with Queen kicker.
Player mj23style finished in 10 place and received $225 USD



I was also 2/8 in the WSOP 10K and just got AKs in vs QQ for a ton of chips and lost. I now have 170K at 5K/10K and am 4/8 but 4th-8th are all close. $2750 up top there. I'm also 1/6 in the $50 turbo on Stars with 200K at 4K/8K and $888 up top. I'm in for about $800 on the day so winning one of these (preferably the 10K, or both really ) would be great. Again, I feel good about how I'll react and feel no matter how things go.

Running

I went 6.2 miles today to finish day 31 in a row, meaning month 1 is complete in the streaker running challenge. When I got back I tried running with the dog with the special leash we got that wraps around the person's waist and then is a normal leash from there to allow for hands free running. It sorta worked but he would stop on a dime once in a while to sniff something and I'd come really close to running him over or hurting myself trying to change direction to avoid him. We made it a mile and it at least seemed to get all of his energy out. He seemed really excited while he was running too so even though it's sort of a pain I think I'll have to try that again soon.

I felt really tired after the first couple of miles of the 6.2 miler but aside from it being slightly uphill, it was also 60 degrees out when I ran today. It's the first time in a while I've ran in something that was over 40 degrees so I guess that sorta makes sense. I also had my hat on (holds my earbud in so I can listen to music while I run) and I realized 2 miles in that it was really overheating me lol. So I couldn't really listen to music the rest of the way but it was a pretty reasonable trade off. So after this nice 60 degree day today, we will have a blizzard and 6-10 inches of snow tomorrow. Go figure.

In the j8 hand although villains holdings are terrible you didn't leave him any Fe really. I prefer to lead shove the flop in your spot, only check raise allin for value when you hit the flop hard or have fe, say you started the hand at 20-30bbs.Those 3 lower buyin mtts you listed seem fine, at the end of the day money is money and volume is king. Obviously if the table count begins to reduce your ROI you don't add them but you should be filling your screen as much as possible up to that equilibrium point regardless of buyin. It's totally normal for the biggest beasts online today playing 25s and 11r's there's no shame in it. just using those 3 tournaments as an example assuming a 50% roi in each thats $37 per day or $740 per month you are passing up on assuming a 5 day per week grind, and there are probably a few others in that range available. maybe you are making so much per month as that money is not worth the effort?

Any Parx this series?

I really disagree with the idea that we leave him no fold equity. With most hands he's going to call but the idea that he's just stuck calling with Q3o now that he's taken this already pretty ridiculous line seems insane to me. He needs to call 24 to win 56 meaning he needs exactly 30% equity. If for some reason I show up with K2o here, he does not have proper equity (24%). If I have one of the several 5x combos I'll show up with here, he has 19% equity. If I have a 9 (which I would play this way) he has 2% equity. I do have some gutshots that he's slightly ahead of and some flush draws that he's slightly behind but bet/calling Q3o is horrible here. You can certainly make the argument that an open shove is better but I thought that he would bet/fold his airballs (or check back and fold to turn shove) and bet/call most of the hands that he'd be calling an open shove against anyway, so I wanted to get the extra c-bet. Turns out he elected to bet/call air and my 52% equity did not win.

Them changing the day 2s to Saturday kinda screwed me. I signed up for a 5K this Saturday before I realized they'd made that change, and I bought tickets for Red Hot Chili Peppers a few months ago for next Saturday. So if I were to play anything it'd be the $1600. I'm going to see if I can get back on track online and if I haven't yet righted the ship here then I will most likely skip Parx. Good luck if you're playing dude.

Ended up with two pretty disappointing results in the last two tourneys yesterday, but it could've been worse. At one point in the $50 tourney I had like 400K of the 700K in play or something 3 handed. Button shoves 10BBs and super aggro SB reshoves 15BBs and I elect to call with 77. It's definitely close. Button has KQs and SB has AA. Flop comes KJ7 and not only do I not win the MTT here, KQ comes in 1st, AA comes in 2nd, I come in 3rd, everyone survives, and I find a way to finish in 3rd after all of this. Blah.

I hung around as we played 8 handed forever in the WSOP 10K. I like to call it the 8 man bubble--WSOP has some absurd payout structure where the jump from 8th to 7th is the biggest jump until you get down to 4 players ($140 jump from 8 to 7, $120 jump from 7 to 6, $100 from 6 to 5, $100 from 5 to 4. It makes no sense). Myself and about 3 other players hovered around 10BBs forever before players started busting, and after slowly chipping up without showdown I found a double with 99>88 to vault into a virtual tie for 1st with 5 left. Three of us had around 450K at 8K/16K with the other 2 players around 10BBs. One of the bigger stacks busted one of the shorties and 4 handed stacks were now something like 900K--400K--400K--200K with me as one of the 400Ks at 10K/20K. We played for a while without stacks changing much before 900K guy opened the CO, I shoved 380K from the BB with 77, he found AKs and I did not win to bust 4th. I've been losing a lot of the 4 figure equity all ins in the last 3 days but I've also been running pretty good to put myself in those positions. At the end of the day all of it is out of my control so what's the point in thinking about it. I do know I'm knocking on the door of getting back into the green for 2017; 2nd place would've basically gotten me there while a win would've put me up a decent amount. In any case I'm happy with how I'm playing and did at least net a $600 profit yesterday. Tonight I'm getting back on the 2017 plus side!

LOL!!! I know this guy, tons of notes on him, he always plays hands like this, opens a lot and shoves any two, always try to be in the pot with him when he opens but I think he won the party major last week

Poker

Pretty disappointing day yesterday, lost a shade under $1000. Seemed to just be losing every meaningful pot until I had one tourney left with the $55 turbo on Party where a win would save the day and net me a small profit. After losing AKs<Q9s for a bunch with 15 left and 10 paying, I doubled my 5BBs and then doubled AJ>AK after the KJxxJ runout. I then won A5>QT for a ton bvb vs the guy who'd beat me with the Q9 and all of a sudden I had the CL with 10 left. Unfortunately I got reminded of just how hard it is to run really good for an entire tournament when I got A9 in vs JJ for a massive CL and got the fun AxxxJ runout, completing the "get 2 outted on the river by a jack" cycle.

I tried opening off 18BBs from the HJ with JTs with 9 left and a guy to my left 3b to 2.5x my open. It's really strange since I'm getting better than 3:1 now but I feel like it's pretty nutted to 3b this size instead of going all in. However I felt I was getting the price with a hand that flops incredibly well and folded flop after it came QQ3r. Folded an orbit, blinds went up, and I shoved Q4o for 9BBs in the SB and busted to AT in 9th. So pretty annoying to go from 1/10 to out in 9th, which seems to have happened a lot this week, but that's poker. I am glad that I'm not just sitting on my hands and waiting for the nuts when I take the lead though; I'm going for the win and it's just a matter of time before I start running good at these final tables.

Tonight I'm going to take it easy to make sure I get a lot of sleep for tomorrow's 5K in the morning--that's a race you degens, not a poker tournament . I have noticed that there are a handful of regs in NJ who play overly aggressive and lately I have felt very uncomfortable playing against them. It also feels like this group, who I know are friends and talk hands together, have been 3 betting me personally pretty relentlessly. I think it's most likely that I'm exaggerating this in my mind, or that I've simply been opening when they've had big hands and it's just a function of variance, but I want to check my database and find all of the hands I've played with them that have gone to showdown. I think this will make me a lot more comfortable in the future. It's not the aggression that's bothering me, it's the fact that I don't feel like I know how to counter it. In a market where everyone plays ABC and most bluffs are face up and everything goes postflop, I realize I've lost the ability to naturally react to 3b's and 4b's in a manner that I feel is profitable. Fortunately it's only these few players who make me have to deal with this, but in a market like New Jersey, you'll see these players at 50% of your tables since the tournaments are just that small. So it is important to at least have a basic plan of how you're going to deal with regs, especially the ones who have elected to force you to play big pots by 3 betting you repeatedly. So I think this sort of studying will leave me feeling more relaxed in the future. I'm not afraid to play 3b/4b/5b pots with these guys, though I think it'd be more profitable for all of us if we didn't force the issue against each other and instead took the easy profit from the many fish NJ has to offer. However, this is how some of them have chosen to attack the game, so now I must adjust! I want to try to figure out tonight if they've been 3 betting me light a ton or I'm perceiving that wrong, and if they're simply 3 betting everyone light or just targeting me.

Running

I ran 5.3 today and it was pretty annoying with all the snow and ice on the sidewalks. The focus of the entire run was to not fall and, when I had to hop into the road since the sidewalk was completely blocked off by a wall of snow, to not get hit by traffic. Somehow I still managed 7:00 pace and felt really relaxed. I ran the last 1.5 miles or so of the course I'll be running tomorrow and felt really good on that stretch so I'm excited to see what tomorrow brings. At 10AM I'll head over to Glen Rock and run the 5K (3.1 mile) race. I really have no idea what time I should be aiming to run. I feel very fit and in shape but I haven't done a speed workout through this entire running streak (today was day 33 in a row). Last year the top 5 times were 17:08, 17:20, 17:50, 18:33, and 18:43, with 6th being way back at 20:19 (out of 112 runners). I think I'll make 18:30, which is just under 6:00/mile, my "goal," but the real goal will simply be to make sure the first mile is nice and easy so that I'm not really struggling on mile 2. When I was younger I'd just run as fast as I could for as long as I could which would end with me gasping for air halfway through the race and just willing myself to the finish line. Not a good way to race.

I think the plan will be to wake up around 8:15-8:30, move around a bit to really wake my body up, eat a banana and drink some water, and head out around 9:00. When I get there I'll grab my bib number, hang out a little bit, then go run a 2 mile warmup at 9:30. Back at 9:45, stretch a little, and hang out at the starting line until it starts at 10:00. When I used to race in high school and college I'd get a little anxious before the start; I don't think there will be any of that tomorrow. It's just a fun 5K and there's absolutely no pressure on me except for what I put on myself. I'm just really glad I'm running again and this will be a fun way to get myself started with doing some speed training again. After 33 days it'll be nice to have some competition during a run!

Poker

Pretty happy with my overall attitude right now, the results are still being pretty torturous though. Decided my rules for buying in today so that I would best be able to feel relaxed while playing would be that $2000 would be max total buy ins and I couldn't re-enter the Sunday majors if starting stack was <20BBs.

Ran quite well early in today's session. Got a set in vs a horribly played flush on turn in the Party major and rivered a boat (he opened 43s UTG, bet/called my cold 3b (2nd player raised) on KJ9hh then c/c'ed it off on 2h turn. I binked a 9 on the river with JJ). Then later played A4s probably bad but decided to try to exploit a guy I thought double barreled too often on 765x board. He had 66 and I rivered a straight. Managed to run the 10K SS up to 70K as the bubble broke, and then folded AA on river in a very annoying spot:

***** Hand History for Game 1111111111 ***** (Party)
Tourney Hand NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, February 12, 10:18:46 ET 2017
Table MAJOR Sunday 40K Gtd ReEntry Championship Bonus (106471624) Table 6 (Real Money)
Seat 7 is the button
Seat 1: Player1 ( 50162 ) - VPIP: 20, PFR: 11, 3B: 6, AF: 2.1, Hands: 1800
Seat 8: Player8 ( 98949 ) - VPIP: 22, PFR: 15, 3B: 5, AF: 2.5, Hands: 865
Seat 2: Player2 ( 166270 ) - VPIP: 24, PFR: 18, 3B: 7, AF: 2.6, Hands: 3894
Seat 6: Player6 ( 76840 ) - VPIP: 19, PFR: 13, 3B: 5, AF: 2.5, Hands: 976
Seat 4: Player4 ( 75165 ) - VPIP: 19, PFR: 11, 3B: 5, AF: 1.8, Hands: 1935
Seat 7: Player7 ( 58747 ) - VPIP: 16, PFR: 12, 3B: 4, AF: 2.5, Hands: 365
Seat 5: Hero ( 68831 ) - VPIP: 19, PFR: 14, 3B: 6, AF: 2.1, Hands: 99031
Seat 3: Player3 ( 44281 ) - VPIP: 31, PFR: 17, 3B: 8, AF: 1.7, Hands: 480
Player8 posts small blind [1000].
Player1 posts big blind [2000].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ Ac As ]
250 chip ante
Player2 folds
Player3 folds
Player4 folds
Hero raises [4000]
Player6 folds
Player7 folds
Player8 folds
Player1 calls [2000]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2s, 3c, 8c ]
Player1 checks
Hero bets [4975]
Player1 calls [4975]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9d ]
Player1 checks
Hero bets [8975]
Player1 calls [8975]
** Dealing River ** [ 5c ]
Player1 bets [31962]
Hero folds
Player1 wins 70862 from main pot

I think I would've felt super comfortable folding if I didn't have the Ac in my hand but knowing he didn't have the nuts and all flush combos with an ace in them are not available made me tank a bit. That being said, I don't think guys do this without it in this spot. It's certainly possible he missed a straight and turned a pair into a bluff or something but I just think it's way way way more likely he simply had a flush. I later 3b shoved 45K with AQ at 2500BB and SB woke up with AK to bust me for the mincash.

I spun the 20K starting stack in the WSOP major up to 80K before dropping to 60K and then losing AK to KT for 75K pot to leave me with 25K at 2500bb. I found a double in dramatic fashion with KT vs 44 running Q42JA, then got 42K in from CO with TT at 3KBB and busted to SB's KQ to bust less than 10 from the money.

Being in for $2000 with $500 in cashes from the Party major left me needing a $1500 cash to break even on the day from the $50 Sunday Warm Up. Luckily I coolered someone KK>AK to double into the chip lead with 7 left. The winner would get $2500 with 3rd getting just a shade under the $1500 I needed to break even. I thought the final 4 was somewhat weak and I was in 2nd when 4 handed play began. I was sort of cruising along with the chip leader probably being the weakest player of the four. They offered a chop to which I said I'd probably want more than ICM so we should just play. I swear to god I've never turned down a chop and then laddered one ****ing spot afterwards lol. Soon after I turned down the chop I played this hand which was just so so bizarre:

***** Hand History for Game 1111111111 ***** (Poker Stars)
Tourney Hand NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, February 12, 10:53:30 ET 2017
Table 1549772577 15 (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Seat 1: Hero ( 655243 ) - VPIP: 26, PFR: 18, 3B: 8, AF: 2.2, Hands: 111099
Seat 4: Player4 ( 713791 ) - VPIP: 15, PFR: 10, 3B: 3, AF: 1.9, Hands: 1301
Seat 5: Player5 ( 1011563 ) - VPIP: 29, PFR: 19, 3B: 6, AF: 1.7, Hands: 796
Seat 7: Player7 ( 409403 ) - VPIP: 27, PFR: 13, 3B: 8, AF: 1.5, Hands: 910
3125 chip ante
Player5 posts small blind [12500].
Player7 posts big blind [25000].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ 9h Kh ]
Hero raises [50000]
Player4 folds
Player5 folds
Player7 calls [25000]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9c, 7c, Ad ]
Player7 checks
Hero checks
** Dealing Turn ** [ Jd ]
Player7 bets [56250]
Hero calls [56250]
** Dealing River ** [ 9d ]
Player7 bets [300028]
Hero folds
Player7 wins 300028
Player7 wins 237500 from main pot

Maybe I should bet flop. Maybe I should fold turn. But ffs he SNAP shoved the river after the bdfd got there! I had absolutely no idea what to make of it. I'd played quite a while with this player and hadn't seen him get out of line yet. I was really taken aback by how quickly he shoved river. I wasn't sure if it meant he was excited to hit his flush, or knew he was going to bluff river no matter what, or if he just had a boat the whole time and didn't care what the river was. I came to the conclusion that he just wasn't going to snap it in with a worse 9 so I was only beating bluffs, and I didn't think there were enough of those to make the call profitable. I'm really unsure though and think it's possible this was a mistake.

And finally my bust hand:

***** Hand History for Game 1111111111 ***** (Poker Stars)
Tourney Hand NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, February 12, 11:10:03 ET 2017
Table 1549772577 15 (Real Money)
Seat 7 is the button
Seat 1: Hero ( 421118 ) - VPIP: 26, PFR: 18, 3B: 8, AF: 2.2, Hands: 111099
Seat 4: Player4 ( 369391 ) - VPIP: 15, PFR: 10, 3B: 3, AF: 1.9, Hands: 1301
Seat 5: Player5 ( 1398463 ) - VPIP: 29, PFR: 19, 3B: 6, AF: 1.7, Hands: 796
Seat 7: Player7 ( 601028 ) - VPIP: 27, PFR: 13, 3B: 8, AF: 1.5, Hands: 910
3750 chip ante
Hero posts small blind [15000].
Player4 posts big blind [30000].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ Js Jd ]
Player5 raises [1394713]
Player7 folds
Hero calls [402368]
Player4 folds
Player5 wins 977345
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qs, 7s, 9h ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5h ]
** Dealing River ** [ Qc ]
Hero shows [Js, Jd ]
Player5 shows [5c, 5s ]
Player5 wins 879736 from main pot

So the theme of the week was getting it in 80/20 at important final tables (as far as turning the day around goes) and not winning. Really torturous to make the final 40 in 2 Sunday Majors while going deep in that Warmup and to come out a $500 loser on the day. ESPECIALLY when you're still down on the year.

But the real thing to take away from this week is that I'm working the way I should be again. I'm putting the time in to play the games I'm supposed to. I'm only 6 tabling so maybe at some point I'll start upping that again. I haven't done much studying and that should start back up soon as well. But I didn't skip any days and I didn't punt any tournaments out of frustration of a session ending poorly. I can certainly play better, but I could certainly run better at these final tables as well, so I'm going to chalk up the losing week some nasty FT variance. I just have to keep getting that volume in to give myself every opportunity to start running off a string of wins again like I did last January. The fact that I had that $20K month really puts being down $2500 on the year into perspective. And there were so many individual all ins at final tables that, had they gone my way, could have erased most or all of that $2500 deficit. Just one more flip going my way could lead to this write up being about the fact that I pulled myself out of the hole on the year. So I'll just keep my head up and get back to the grind tomorrow.

Running

Five weeks in a row down, many many more to go for any chance of winning the competition. At this point I don't care about the actual competition part of the contest. I'm just completely focused on making sure I get the run in every day, and the contest holds me accountable to that. I ran 40.9 miles this week after 42.9 last week. I only ran 3 miles today though so had it been a normal day I probably would've put 5 in and matched last week's effort. There was this snow/freezing rain mix coming from the sky most of the day, which by itself wouldn't have stopped me from going 5 or more miles, but the mix it left on the ground made the run pretty dangerous. Sidewalks weren't really shoveled and roads weren't really plowed, so at times I was running through puddles, other times slush, and other times straight ice. After most of my runs have been 7:00 pace or faster today was 7:40 for just 3 miles and I really didn't care. The entire focus was on not getting hurt. But today was boring compared to yesterday, because yesterday was my first race in forever!

Glen Rock Cupid's Chase 5K

I pretty much stuck exactly to the plan I listed in the last post on the morning of the race. Up at 8:30, banana and some water, out of the house a little after 9. Walked to the check in desk, went to get my shirt ("are you available or unavailable?" "uh...available I guess, thanks for reminding me"), and then warmed up 2 miles. Came back by 9:45 and stretched a little and then remember how awkward it is to be at a 5K where you don't know anyone as I stood around sort of staring at nothing for 10 minutes before the race started. I did elect to run with my phone so I at least got to awkwardly stare at Twitter and Reddit while I waited.

Got to the starting line and reminded myself that everyone was going to sprint as fast as they could when it started and I needed to stay composed and let them go. After about a tenth of a mile I looked up and counted 12 people in front of me. It's hilarious how fast they drop off; without picking up my pace at all I was in 3rd as I made the turn 0.4 miles into the 3.1 mile race. I looked up to see 2 kids way ahead, but it looked like one was already pulling away from the other. So with 2.7 miles still to go in the race, the main goal was still to stay composed on the first mile and reevaluate from there, but the secondary goal was to try to catch this kid if he started to really fall off.

I hit the first mile at 6:13 which was a little slower than I was expecting but that's fine. I'd rather have been too slow through one and in control than too fast and sucking wind. As I approached 1.5 miles I had gained a ton on the kid in 2nd and I was wondering if he was gonna fight as I passed him to stay with me or if he was just gonna let me go. I'd say I came within 10 seconds of him as we came up to a turn. I didn't really see his form change or anything but as we approached 2 miles he'd opened up his lead on me to about 20 seconds again! It's very rare to see someone start to slow down in a race only to find that sort of second wind before even getting caught.

I came through the 2nd mile at 6:09, faster than the 1st, but it had become clear I was going to finish this race in 3rd. 2nd was way out of reach and I could not see anyone behind me when I checked my shoulder. I let my legs take me down the hill on the 3rd mile before doing my best to kick the flat last half mile. The 3rd mile came through at 5:57, meaning each mile was faster than the last, and I ran the final tenth to finish 3rd in 19:12. Not very close to the 18:30 I estimated I might be around, but given the winner was 18:34 I'm not gonna beat myself up about it. 4th finished over a minute behind me so I really pretty much ran the race completely by myself. Having people around you to push you always makes it easier to go faster, so hopefully next race I find some more people running near that 19 minute mark. Here's a list of the full results: http://my3.raceresult.com/68284/#1_22DCB0

I talked to the kid who won the race after since he was decked out wearing his cross country high school uniform. It was 35 degrees out so he must have been freezing lol. I recognized the name of the school and asked him if he knew the pair of brothers that I ran with in college. Sure enough, they coach/teach at that school now so he knew them. The kid also told me he was a sophomore, and the results show him in the 13-15 year old age group, so not only is he at least 10 years younger than me, he was born in the 2000s. That **** made me feel old!

I planned on running another full 2 miles to cool down but when I got to 1.8 I was running past the award ceremony and heard them start to announce the top 3 of each gender. I almost literally ran to receive my award, which I was pleasantly surprised to see was a nice little trophy instead of the standard medal:



I don't know why it says Elmwood Park, the town directly south of Fair Lawn, instead of Glen Rock, the town directly north, but I'm not complaining. I had a good experience with the race overall and felt excited to start trying to do some speed work in the future. I felt pretty comfortable throughout the race but really did not think I could pick up the pace much at all, a good sign that my endurance is good but the speed is not there. My original plan for tomorrow was to go out and run 10 miles but I looked up wind conditions and there is supposed to be 29MPH wind at noon tomorrow. I'm definitely not trying to battle more than just the standard 10 miles for my first time going double digits in maybe 6 years, so I'm just going to do a normal day tomorrow and then do the long run Tuesday. I *think* I'll try running to Fair Lawn High School on Wednesday to do an interval workout on the track but I'm not 100% on that yet. It's really nice having running to focus on when things out of my control are leading to unwanted results in poker. Having more than one outlet and a healthy balance in life is big in being happy. Kelsey helped to provide that balance for me for several years and when I left her I unknowingly lost that healthy equilibrium. Running is helping me to find it again.

Poker

Chopped the Party 10K heads up today for $2350 each when he had better than a 2:1 lead when we made the deal. Was in for a little over $700 on the day and that was the only cash so I made over $1600. I won A9s>AA for tourney life with 7 or 8 left. I'm pumped about my mental game because I'm confident that had I not cashed this tournament I would be coming back to tomorrow session with the same attitude I have right now. My head is right where it needs to be. After eclipsing $2500 yesterday the hole for the year is back to 3 figures. It's time to start making money playing this game again.

Running

Like I said yesterday, the plan going in to today was to run 10 miles since I've been making Mondays my long run day; however, with 30mph winds forecast, I was planning to just do a regular distance run. Most runners make Sundays their long run but since that's the most important work day for me and I have to run before it starts, that schedule doesn't work out. I decided to drive to the southern end of some running paths that run north to south for 6 miles so that I could run 3 miles north, into the wind that was coming from the northwest, and then have the wind at my back when returning. I ran my 6 miles and the wind was crazy as expected, but somehow when I approached the 6 mile mark I just felt much better than I expected to. So I decided to do the full 10!

I did two 3/4 mile loops around a pond to start the run, ran about 2 miles north then back, and did another two loops to get me near 7 miles. At that point I realized I'd ran a 5K in this park last year that started pretty much where I was, so I elected to run that course to get to 10 miles. That meant the last 1.5 miles would be into the wind but I decided I'd just deal with it. When I hit the 8 mile mark I did something drastic, something I've yet to do on any of my runs: I put my left earbud in. Every run I keep the right earbud in and the left one out so that if I need to listen for traffic or anything like that I won't be deaf to it. But the combination of wanting to block out how tired I was and being on a path where I'd only have to deal with people (and not cars) had me settle on shutting out the outside world. It was strange how well it worked. When I hit the 9 mile mark I checked my watch to see 1:03:11, meaning a 6:49 mile last mile would get me to 7:00 flat pace for my first double digit run in probably 6 years. Despite the fact that I was going into the wind I felt pretty comfortable dropping what my watch said was a 6:47 mile to finish at 1:09:58. However, when I checked the Strava app I use to get the "official" time, it had me at 6:53 pace overall and a 6:37 final mile.

So today was awesome in that regard. I don't feel overly tired or anything and I haven't had many issues in terms of pain in my legs, knees, or feet. I think I'll run to the local high school tomorrow to do intervals for the first time in forever. The plan is to run the 1.5 miles to the school plus another 2 laps to get my warmup to 2 miles and then run 6x800m with a 400m jog in between each. All that means is I'll run a half mile in 3:00, jog a quarter mile, and do that same set 6 times. When I'm done that I'll run the 1.5 miles home for a total of 8 miles on the day. I'll be interested to see how much or little energy I have as the workout goes on. I'll essentially just be running the pace I did for the 5K on Saturday, except on flat ground with a bunch of rest in between. So theoretically it should be easy and I should probably do it faster, but I want to make sure my first workout goes well enough that I don't get turned off by the idea of doing anything other than distance runs. I think it will go well though and I'm looking forward to it.

How did you manage to convince the other guy to chop it evenly? 2:1 is a huge lead.

With 5 left there was only one other player I considered to be decent. I had my chat off but when I checked a hand history I saw that the other 3 were pretty desperate asking for a chop lol. Sure enough 3 people had the "Yes" box checked to discuss a deal and me and 1 other still had "No" checked. The guy I ended up heads up with had the shortest stack but caught some crazy heat and he was the one who had been pushing the hardest for the chop. When we got heads up I turned chat back on and told him I'd split it evenly (I'd seen the other guy with 5 left who had the chip lead write something like "LET'S CHOP, $1500 EACH," so I figured I'd take a shot at offering this guy the even chop). If he wanted any more than the even split I would've played it out but he agreed pretty quickly and that was that