Living the dream

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSKndXpLM3Y

We all make our deposits on to poker sites with one shared vision in common. To one day be living the dream of being a high stakes baller.

Ok so I don't consider myself a baller but I did get to taste the lifestyle of it and through the experience I came out a changed man. My personality hasn't altered too much, but I feel I am a more confident, mature and comfortable person.

I am back in England and having a look over pics/vids of my entire year and it's travels. I am realizing how much more to life there is, and how being a professional poker player allows me to do things I wouldn't have even dreamed about doing. I have been around some of the greatest minds in Poker, surfed in some of the sickest waves in the world (well attempted to), got massages by the best (thanks for paying Serk), chilled on amazing beaches, saw a monkey in the wild (FINALLY), followed the greatest weather, saw some of the most amazing sites the world has to offer, stayed in apartments that just two years ago I wouldn't dream I would ever see the inside of, got table service in exclusive clubs, ran up insane bills at pool parties in Vegas, done graffiti on Venice beach, met the nicest people, avoided the fakes, dodged the gold diggers and managed to form some strong relationships based on trust. This is just few of the many memories I took from the year and already I feel it paints the picture clear for the positive movement my peers and myself created.

A lot of this life style can be related back to the beginning of my poker experience. Coming into the game thinking I knew it all and soon realized I am just a fish in this big world. Not a big fish obviously as I find it's easily justified when your making money of fish to spend a little back into enjoying the game. I believe everyone has to be a fish to become a shark, learning and evolving is what will make that transition. At the end of the day a shark is just a big, intelligent fish!

So what have I taken a way from this trip?

I have learned how much we can take everything we learned in the complex game of poker into the more complicated game of life. Money in the bank isn't the way to judge achievements, we can't base how clever someone is by how much money they have or how balling they can be. In many situations it can give us a good indication of a person, but the same as in poker, every decision in life matters. Even the decisions so small we don't think will ever effect the long run. As in poker we can determine a persons skill level in life by asking some questions:

• Do they wake up with an optimistic approach to a day/situation? 
• Do they attempt it once, fail and give up? or do they pick them self up learn and try again, again and yep, again? 
• Do they make incorrect decisions/statements/answers and admit they are incorrect, and then adapt quickly to a more optimal way?
• Will they accept that something they have been doing for a long period of time might be incorrect and accept that changing them self might be the only way they can achieve happiness?
• Do they accept that someone in a higher position is always correct? or do they question it, challenge it and come up with their own answers?
• Do they have a competitive side to them? How much of that side is ego? how much of it is will to succeed?
• Do they put their heart into things? or just act like they do but really don't know what putting their heart into something means? 
• Do they complain about things that they couldn't do anything to prevent from happening?
• Do they complain about things in general?
• Do they dwell on the past but forget that their future is the only thing they have control over?
• Does a hurdle stop them chasing what they want?
• Do they let an opportunity go by over and over?
• Do they appreciate the good times because they learned from the bad times?
• Do they hate on someone else that has what they want? Or do they choose to support and learn from that person recognizing being against them isn't going to get them far?

I went a bit deep on some of those questions but I feel like they are good questions I have asked my self many times in developing as a poker player. Now the more mature I am becoming, the more and more I am asking myself these questions in order to better myself as human even if sometimes I see my self answering these questions and don't like the answers I have for them.

'Am I gonna get a tan?'

Jason Bourne eat your heart out

Aim, fire, miss, ouch my eye

How to pimp a buggy

   

Upswing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWWP4xtxXXE&ob=av2e
I won't go into too much details about upswings, because it's really the same stuff as I went through in the previous post about the downswing just a bunch of variance boring stuff. My bankroll is booming and flying again, it feels good, I feel like every session is being played in the zone, I have had some good sessions in $1ks and ran really good in some 25/50  $1k cap games, running around $9k above ev. I have had some good opponents play me in the last month and had some good action with fish too, it has been a roller costar few months but I am really happy with the place I am now and where my roll is at right now.

So I worked on my game a lot when I was in Cali last at the beginning of Oct. I think that time away from poker was a good decision when I was faced with a long downswing. I would advise anyone to take time out when they think their game needs some reflecting on. It is also important to remember to be putting in high volume sessions which some times you forget to do when not running so good.
So I will show you my all in ev from the time I came back from California - now.

We also have had Jyg4me staying with us, and even though I keep loosing the flip for the bed it's been good having him back on board over my grind trip. Talking of flipping I have run 60 buyins under ev to Serkules flipping $200 dices whilst waiting for drinks and food. FML I want to prove Serk is human to people and will prove it before I die, but maybe flipping lower stakes :). Also we hit up the Snoop Dogg party the other day, was pretty sick night.

I am going to be going back to America to chill with a good friend of mine for a couple days away from poker and to wind down of this trip before going back to London where I will spend Christmas. It's been a fun trip, I will definitely continue to travel in one way or another. I will see how my options unfold.

On a last note I wanna give a shout out to any one who knew my boy Ian. I hope all you guys are thinking about the good times. We had so many :D.

Artist: Ryan McDonald

Neeeeeeebooooooooooo