CARDRUNNERS

I had a meeting today with my academic advisor to get some classes I needed scheduled.   Luckily, I worked it out so that I only have to go on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 3 classes.  I also have 2 other classes , however they are structured a little bit differen't.  I only have them twice a week for 2-3 hour's a piece and they only last a month each.   The first one is on Friday nights from 6-9 and then right back in Saturday mornings from 8:45-12.  I don't want to waste my Friday's in class, and going right back Saturday mornings, but this is worth 3 credits and only lasts from Jan. 18th - Feb 23rd.   So basically this will last about 4 weekends.  The other class will run March 14- May 2nd and is Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6-8:30.  Not ideal since I hate long classes, but there only a month long each so it'll keep me busy with my other 3.  It should land me 18 credits this semester.

One thing I've been focusing on more is my physical fitness.  I'd say I've gained 15lbs since my freshman year and I'd say I put on 5lbs the last month from not getting in the gym much.   I've incorporated this into my poker in a healthy way.  I basically have a list of things I want to accomplish as stated before in a previous blog before I hit the tables again.   One of them is me lossing 10lbs so that I'll be living a healthier lifestyle.  When I'm in great shape, I feel like I play greate and don't tilt like I have been the last few sessions I've been playing.   So I've added this on as well.  I won't be playing until I get back down to 155lb. 

Lastly, I've been doing a lot of reading and I'm enjoying it accually.  I haven't watched any CR videos latey, although I plan too shortly.   I feel it's good to take some time and read a book or two.  They've been life based and non poker, although my next book will be a poker book.  So far life's going good although it should get more hectic shortly.

I have taken a few days off due to my bad run lately and I have realized that a lot of my downswing is caused by playing in autopilot. I rarely play a few tables and try and work on my game, specifically hand reading.  The problem with playing a ton of tables is that I play too nitty and don't focus on all of the different situations that come up.  I usually end up taking the least varianced route that usually requires less thinking.  So the end result is playing on autopilot and whoring my HUD too much.

I have been thinking that when I do start to play again that I will play at least one session thats half as many tables my normal session is.  For example, I usually 12 table so I will 6 table for at least one session in that day.  I will focus on putting people on hand ranges, and how their range stacks up to my hand, and my range.  I will focus on what boards I can cbet on against certain players, as well as trying to experiment with 3 betting more.

At the moment, I am less worried about grinding out the hands, and more focused on getting better.  If I were to raise my winrate by 1ptbb (which is possible, and a mid length goal) while spending one hour a day playing half as many tables I'm used too; I think it will be worth it in the longterm.

In other news I registered for classes today.  I'm only going to be taking 9 credits, but I will also be working 32 hours a week. If that gets to be too much I can always get another day off of work if needed.  I'm pretty happy with my classes and the schedual.  I have 3 classes in 2 days and they are all afternoon classes so I can get my sleep.  This semester its going to be Graphic Design I, Microcomputer Apps I, and Digital Photography I.  I will  probably knock out my dredded math class next semester.  I'm not looking forward to it.  But its nice to be in school again after taking almost 2 years off.

Today I ordered chinese food and sat back and watched the superbowl with my roommates and a few others. The game was very disappointing, Rex Grossman pretty much blew it at every opportunity and the bears couldnt even beat the 7 point spread. :(

Last week was the first week of classes. I'm taking four real classes plus one bullshit 1-credit class required to graduate with honors. The classes I am taking are behavioral psychology, philosophy of psychology, discrete structures, and a physics class called 'einstein's dice.' The last one should be easy -- its basically a conceptual class on quantum physics. The other 3 are higher level classes and will be somewhat time consuming if I wish to do well in them. If you were to graph my gpa over time it would look kind of like the trajectory of a man jumping off a cliff. Luckily I did extremely well for my first 2 years at UMass to buffer my cumulative enough that I can easily graduate with a 3.7+ if I retake a couple easy classes and do well in the next 3 semesters. Disciplining myself to do the work is of course the biggest obstacle.

The weather has been awful here. I absolutely hate snow, and we got blizzarded a couple days ago. I was driving back from the liquor store during the storm, and the conditions were so bad that my car came to a stop on Mass Ave, which is a road through campus. I drive a 2005 infiniti G35 sudan, which has rear wheel drive. That has never happened to me before, but I know very little about cars, and I'm very worried about driving again if it snows more. My friends Danny and Bill had to get out of the car and push it until the car picked up enough momentum to get past the incline.

Tomorrow is my first day back at school in god knows how long. Actually, he does know, and its 6 years or something. Wow how time flies. Then again I was commenting on new years with some high school friends about how the 10 year reunion was just 2 years away. Time sure has flown.

Anyways my scheduling really sucks. It apepars ok on Tues/Thurs when classes start at 8am and end at noon. thats fine so i can show up early, find parking, have breakfast and then hit my classes up and still be able to get home for the early afternoon prime time hours on party. My problems are with MWF when classes start at 1220 and end at 1640. It is a beat on so many levels. I dont know how I am going to park my car showing up at noon. I am going to have to suffer driving through rush hour traffic on the way home everyday since i live in the middle of nowhere and school is in the center of the city. And of course the final beat is that I will be missing the best hours to play poker at. This fucking sucks.

I took the last few days off from poker. When there has been poker in my day its been watching some videos or taking notes on how the regulars play by wathcing hands in the PT hand replayer. I guess I did a quick session on thursday or something like that, and it just turned my month from being +0 to +500 or something in 100 hands. pretty standard.

But wow, am i ever choked about school scheduling. Dont get me wrong, i am very excited to go back to school and have such high expectations for this year in general. However, this scheduling just doesnt mesh with what i had in mind as regards to splicing in more poker time, studying/school related stuff and hopefully restarting my near dead social life.

Sigh.

Lets see how the classes are. In university I was in computer programming and genetics. Not so many girls in those classes. Accounting and business is different i hope.

I hope.