CARDRUNNERS

I wrapped up my finals this past Thursday and am now officially a college senior!  I really worked my ass off this semester in school and I think the results will show.  I don't have all my grades yet, but I got a B in my econometrics class, which is one of the hardest classes econ majors at Cornell have to take.  I am very happy with this as my major GPA hasn't been all that great to this point.  I am still planning on taking 3 more semesters, because I have 35 credits left and taking 18 and 17 credit semesters my senior year right after turning 21 doesn't sound all that fun.  Instead I am going to just take 3 light semesters so I can really enjoy myself.  This sounds like much more fun to me.

Right now I am trying to get myself back into the swing of things with poker.  I played probably about 2 hours during finals week and not much at all since spring break really.  I just didn't have much time with my focus more on school and my social life.  Unfortunately, getting back to the grind hasn't really been that easy, because I seemingly lose every session I play.  I think this is a combo of me being rusty and me being 'avatar cursed' on FTP (just kidding.....maybe).  As an aside, I did recently get my avatar on FTP.  It is pretty solid imo but the pic was taken 1.5 years ago so I don't look exactly the same, but it's better than most avatars and I'm happy with it.  Anyway, I'm not gonna whine about running bad or anything, I know in the grand scheme of things I have nothing to complain about.  Tax day made things less fun, but I'll deal with it.  I do want to make one observation though.  I have been playing a lot of 25/50 and railing some of the 300/600 and 500/1k PLO games.  I could be wrong, but from what I've seen I think the 25/50 games are often tougher right now.  Some of the regulars in the big games just make some very fundamentally flawed plays, particularly preflop.  The good regs at 25/50 are just super solid and don't do this really.  There are some worse regs at 25/50 who do, but in some lineups I really think 25/50 plays tougher.  Unfortunately I don't have the roll to be playing 300/600 at the moment, so all the evidence I have is my armchair quarterback observation.  I think it will be really interesting to see how some of the other 25/50 guys do in the big games if/when they take shots at them though.

On a brighter note, I am currently in vacation in Florida with my family for the week.  We're staying at the beach for 4 nights then heading to Disney World for 3 (shoutout to Mickey Mouse's best friend, Joe "LL2" Ward!).  It hasn't gone all smoothly - my dad separated his shoulder yesterday bodysurfing (he's pretty ok though), I made the brilliant decision to stay at the beach for three whole hours yesterday, which is not a very good idea given my naturally pale skin, and today set a record for the most rainfall Vero Beach has ever gotten.  However, I am still enjoying myself.  The beach time yesterday was very nice and relaxing.  I picked up Shadow Divers to read on the plane rides and the beach.  It is a novel about two men who discovered a German U-Boat from World War II 60 miles off the coast of New Jersey, completely against what all military records had stated.  I am only about halfway through and don't want to provide any spoilers, but it is a very fascinating read and difficult to put down once I start.  I picked it up because a few posters on 2p2 recommended it, and I am very happy I did so.  I really need to start reading more.  There's not much that beats a great book, imo.  After the beach, I went to get a massage at the resort.  Luckily my sunburn hadn't really set in yet and the massage was great.

Today, I went to see Star Trek with my dad since it was pouring out and I couldn't really go back in the sun anyway.  This movie was really impressive imo, the storyline was pretty compelling and there were some great special effects.  I hadn't really ever watched any older Star Trek stuff or sci-fi in general either.  I'm not a fan of mindless action movies, but this was something more.  Iron Man is a fair comparison, although the storyline isn't really similar or anything.  Anyway, check it out if you're remotely interested in this kinda thing.  Afterwards the whole family went to a seafood place and I had some really delicious yellowtail snapper.  I'm probably just taking it easy for the rest of the night and definitely watching game 1 of the Lakers/Nuggets series.  Since the Bulls were eliminated in their great first round series, I have jumped on the Nuggets bandwagon.  I'm a huge fan of their bench, especially the Birdman.  He just brings so much energy and I love the fact that he created his own nickname.  What a baller.  Their whole team is really fun to watch and I do think they beat the Lakers, probably in 6 games.  I don't expect them to beat the Cavs but will be rooting for it to happen.

Tomorrow my sister and I are supposed to get some surfing lessons.  That is contingent on both the weather and my sunburn cooperating though.  I'd say it's pretty unlikely that I end up going, but I sure hope I do.  I've always wanted to learn how to surf.  If worse comes to worse I will have other opportunities though.

One last thing - I recently did a podcast with Nick Wealthall of "On the Rail," the UK's most popular poker podcast that he co-hosts with CR blogger Kara Scott.  Nick is a great guy and a great interviewer and I think this turned out really well.  I've had several friends who don't listen to many podcast interviews say that they really enjoyed it, so check it out if you get a chance.  You can listen to it here.

That's all for now, good luck at the tables all!

Brian