Wow, it has really been a long time since I've been on here. Let me read back on my previous post so see where I left off...
Ok I'm back. So I waited patiently for my cash out to happen and it did. It took about six weeks. Even though it was a really long time, there were no problems with the deposit or anything else that people were complaining about on 2+2. Shortly after that, I read something about the DOJ potentially targeting the smaller poker sites like Carbon so I decided to withdraw the rest of the money I had on there (although I did leave like $20 or so just to play around with).
Poker was really slow for me. I didn't trust playing online too much and I was super busy finishing up my last semester of Grad school to really put in a lot of hours live. Back in March I took a poker trip that really changed my outlook on the game and rejuvenated my excitement and passion for the game again. I just got out of work on one Friday afternoon, grabbed a few hundred bucks, filled up my car with gas, and hit the road to AC. This would be my first time going to the Borgata. I got there around 10pm and sat 1/2 until about 3am or so. I was TIRED! I ended up being stuck $440 I think. The majority of that loss was my KK to AA preflop. Even though I lost, I was in a surprisingly good mood. I had a lot of fun. The whole ride home I was thinking about when I would get to do it again.
Fast forward to me arriving home at 6am. I went to sleep the second I hit my bed only to awake 3 hours later still feeling the excitement from the night before. I laid there in bed and decided that I was going to sleep a few more hours and head right back out there. It was crazy since its a 5-6 hour round trip, but I was in a crazy kind of mood. I woke up around noon and decided to book a really cheap hotel outside of AC so that in the event I was really tired I could crash there for a bit before heading home.
This time I arrived at the Borgata at about 9pm (I got to my hotel at 6pm and took a little nap before playing). I basically brought my entire bankroll with me and decided that I was going to play my ass off and make the best decisions I could make and if I lost, I lost. Still being stuck $440 from less than 24 hours ago, I was in a different mindset. I sat 2/5 for a full buy in ($500) and began to play some good solid poker. After two and a half hours I was sitting with a stack of $1300. I decided I was satisfied with my winnings and called it a night. I drove home at like midnight and was able to be home by 3am to get a full night sleep.
That weekend was the both the single biggest loss in a single session (-$440) and the biggest win (+$800). It was swingy, so I'm not crediting any crazy poker skills to my small triumph, but it was a step in the right direction nonetheless.
I haven't been back to AC since, but I did play in a lot of local games in Queens. I went on like a 5 or 6 session win streak that brought me up about another $1,000. Then I went to Parx Casino for the first time and lost like $400 and slowed down my playing a bit since then. I didn't slow down because of the loss, but more because of the fact that I was paying more attention to poker than I was my school work and there was no way I was going to fuck up the final semester of my life.
So now, I have graduated. No more school. Forever. It still hasn't hit me yet because I'm awaiting the results of a comprehensive exam. I should get them in the mail in the next week or so. I'm excited about putting more time and energy back into poker. Hell, I'm even going to play online again since the DOJ hasn't done anything against the smaller sites. I recently signed up to Lock Poker since they merged with the Cake network. I'm pretty excited to begin playing husngs again.
Side note of updates: I had some more tests on my heart just to make sure all that shit was working fine before my free student health insurance runs out. I wore another holter monitor, had a stress echo, and everything is looking really good. I went to get an MRI just as one final test, but I got way too claustrophobic and couldn't do it. My doctor said it wasn't a big deal and that it's nothing to worry about since all of my other tests were negative. That was a really big relief and I've felt much better and less stressed since.
Ok well that's about it for my 6 month update. I'll try to get this updated with more poker news once I start grinding some more.
