EGO-MANICAL RANT, SOCCER, SURFING AND POKER

My girlfriend is studying for her Master’s degree here in Sydney and from time to time, she seeks my advice on various subjects, when she struggles (she’s pretty smart, so mostly she just takes care of business). The latest example hereof is an accountancy paper that’s due next week. All day Wednesday of last week I spent reading through the bloody thing, trying to make sense of what is still – at least to me – some of the most illogical crap you’ll ever find in the business world! I have a piece of paper from my days at school, certifying that – supposedly – I should know accountancy. Theoretically, I should know all about double-bookkeeping, reading balance sheets, filling in income statements and determining what might be a liability and what is most likely an asset. Here’s the rude awakening: I just BARELY passed that course back in the day and literally had to re-learn it all, just so that I could help my girl out. Result = Less time for poker.

I did play a bit on Thursday and Friday, mostly comprised of STTs, but also a few 18-pp, 27-pp and even regular MTTs in there. I came 14th in a 20+2 MTT which was good enough for an in-the-money finish and I came 2nd and 3rd in 18-pp tourneys, so overall I made a profit, but it wasn’t pretty. In particular one 6-person STT where I finished 3rd (top-two getting paid) still bugs the hell out of me. We came into 3-handed play with me holding roughly 60% of the chips and one of the other two only shoving JJ+. It’s SO easy to play against guys like that and yet I managed to screw it up.

Counting the rakeback I got, the total profit for those two days came to a measly 67.45. I’ll take it, I guess.

So, the plan was instead that I would use the weekend to get a fair bit of playing in. Instead, I decided my time would be better spent enjoying the shit out of myself and simultaneously punishing the crap out of my body. It started Saturday where I played back-to-back season-opener matches (1 for the reserve team, where we won 8-0 and stand-by for the 1st team, where we won 4-3). I scored one hell of a goal in the 1st game, where I lobbed the ball over the keeper from the edge of the 18-yard-box and then turned to face my onrushing teammates, who were rushing to hand out deserved accolades for what will most likely be a goal-of-the-season-contender! Imagine checking the turn, after c-betting the flop and then coming over the top of villain’s river-bet with absolutely nothing (‘cause you just know) – resulting in his fold. Now double that feeling and you’ll get how pumped I was about scoring that goal!

Still left Sunday to get some tournaments in and make some headway towards my goal. Well, never got that far. My girl and I decided to head to Cronulla Beach with some friends of ours to learn how to surf! Our instructors were a couple of happy-go-lucky-blonde-and-long-haired-“dude exclaiming”-and-“sweet wave”-proclaiming-not-a-care-in-the-world-wave-catching-guys who did their jobs well. By that I mean, ultimately we all made it up onto the boards and even managed to stay up for a few seconds, before getting pounded by another wave. I would love to say that I was a natural, at one with the sea and similar crap, but blatantly lying has never been my thing. Instead, stubbornness and crude perseverance is what ultimately brought on some very limited personal success.


Starting bankroll: USD 5,279.63
Session result: USD +67.45
New bankroll: USD 5,347.08
Days left until Aussie Millions 2010: 283

Thanks for reading.