I've had a blast this week, visiting friends, enjoying the San Diego summer weather, the beach, and the city. And oh yeah, I managed to play a little poker. I think I'm getting the hang of no limit, booking a lot of small wins, and a few four-figure days which is great. If I can consistently do that I'll make some good money while still learning this game.
The Commerce trip got postponed a few times but finally we made it up there Sunday and I tried to remember how to play limit holdem, since it's been awhile. Actually I played quite well, which surprised me a bit because I thought for sure I would be rusty. I was also worried I would try and use my "no limit brain" that I've been developing but I was quickly able to change focus and remember the significant differences in strategy for limit as opposed to no limit. I played my absolute best game and had some excellent cards which always helps and put up a solid win in my last live session before Vegas. Some extra cash for the tournaments and side games and some confidence all came at a great time.
This week I'm going to try and log a few more sessions online before basically taking a break from my computer for a week and doing the Vegas thing. Updates from there to follow…hopefully some fun stories from my first WSOP tournaments.
Since the last Commerce trip I haven't ventured outdoors very often. I've been spending my time learning NL holdem and playing small stakes NL games. I'm proud to say I'm progressing rapidly and able to make a bit of money at the game. Ideally I'd like to move up a few more levels in that game and rake in the dough in this new fun low variance game, but we'll see. I am slightly worried that I'm destroying my limit game, but I need to learn to play both and disassociate them in my mind so I can keep the extremely different strategies in my head and apply them in the right game! Also with my plans to play limit WSOP events I need to not suck too badly at that game.
Other than poker I've been having a lot of fun with various friends visiting San Diego over the summer. Everyone seems to prefer hanging out here at the beach to staying in Tucson, go figure. We did the beach and some bar hopping over the weekend and planning to go to Sea World (again) on Thursday to check out the new summer shows. In between now and then I have a Commerce trip scheduled where I'll try and remember how to play limit and hopefully win some money.
One more week until Vegas!
We had an awesome trip up to Commerce yesterday. I didn't make any money (actually lost some) but had tons of fun. We wound up getting a 20/40 mix game going and playing triple draw, badugi, stud/8, omaha/8 – I love mix games and really am trying to improve my non-holdem games. I had the chance there to meet and play with a couple 2+2ers I have a ton of respect for as well as a NVG internet celebrity who will have to go unnamed 
After that we went upstairs at Commerce to Newhizzle's room (who's been living at Commerce for two weeks and playing live poker everyday – my hero) and played Chinese poker for a couple hours. Awesome.
Back to online for awhile here, I'm going to start dominating NL soon I feel it.
After a long week in Arizona our vacation is over and I'm back to work. We had a great time despite the ridiculous heat and even accomplished some wedding tasks while there. Of course I also got a session in at Casino Arizona and was very happy with their soft 40/80 games. While out of town I didn't play any "real" poker but did log a lot of triple draw sessions on my laptop and won every one of them! Small limits only but it was fun to book some wins and play that game for awhile.
Being in triple draw mode all week I am very hesitant to jump back into limit holdem so I have been delaying it by continuing to amuse myself with other games. I've played more triple draw, stud/8, and omaha/8 since I got back and I'm also trying to learn NL holdem again with some ok initial results. I'm not sure at this point when I'm going to get back in serious mode though I feel like I need to to actually make some money this month but on the other hand, I look at playing low limit other games as practice for eventually playing those games for bigger stakes or mixed games. But practice won't pay the mortgage so we'll see. I figure as long as I log hands and hours doing something poker related the rest will take care of itself.
Despite relocating to a new house and dealing with all the issues surrounding that, May had been quite a smooth month pokerwise. I won fairly consistently and it appeared to me that it would be one of my better months and at the right time with all the costs of buying a house causing me to feel like I "needed" to win. All that went out the window the last two days of the month, where I hit the largest downswing of my young poker career and near records for daily losses back to back. After the carnage I wound up just slightly ahead for the month, which is pretty disheartening to say the least.
Having had so much early good luck and success at poker, I do not handle losing and/or downswings well and this is no exception. I am afraid to play, any losing hands make me nervous for no reason, and I just concentrate on all the money I used to have instead of accepting the current situation and going from there. The good news is I realize I am thinking this way and need to find out how to change that mentality. Coincidentally a week long Arizona trip came up just as I was considering taking a break to fix my emotional state as it relates to poker, and now I'm writing this from Arizona having not played poker for a couple days and no real intentions to for the next six days until we return to San Diego.
The vacation so far is going great, though a bit busy. So many friends and family members to see and spend time with, a few birthdays to celebrate, and some wedding business for my fiancee to attend to while we're here. I may end up playing some non-serious poker later in the week if I find myself with freetime, mostly so I can avoid the incredible heat! I grew up here and yet having been gone for less than a year I come back conditioned like a tourist for the Arizona summer.
Update to follow later in the week, hopefully with little or no poker content!