Just got back from a much-needed getaway with my fiancee. We spent a couple days being tourists in Seattle, and then squeezed in attending my friend's wedding, the real reason for going. The weather started out rainy and miserable – official Seattle weather we decided – but the last day and a half were fantastic, with no rain or clouds to be found.

I'm back to internet-world now and hopefully back to poker world this weekend. I managed to read most of NL Holdem – Theory and Practice on the plane which I enjoyed and it has given me some major concepts to think about as I try and learn this silly NL game.

Also, Mark won the whole damn thing at the Borgata, major congratulations to him, 1.5 million and change doesn't hurt either.

Not too much to report from the last few days, I've been playing a lot of 400 NL on Party Poker and basically breaking even. It's funny, I'm not having any sort of wild swings, like rarely over one buyin up or down, just lots of little pots and every now and then stacking someone or getting stacked, but nothing consistent. I'm playing a very tight style but it worked well at 200 NL. Unfortunately, so far, it isn't doing me much good in the tougher 400 NL games. I'm hoping that I'm learning as I go along and at least recognizing the regulars and trying to learn how to beat them.

I made it up to Commerce on Saturday and played some NL (shortstacking 10/20) and limit and lost in both as I tend to do at Commerce recently. We went out for a great dinner at this Spanish tapas place in Hollywood, which was the highlight of the trip. I leave tomorrow for Seattle for the rest of the week which should be a great trip. My fiancee and I will do touristy stuff for a couple days and then attending a friend's wedding, and I doubt any poker will get played.

My friend Mark (well known 2+2er Newhizzle) is the massive chip leader at the Borgata WPT event final table. Take it down Mark!

So at the wedding my friends convinced me learning NL was the way to go and after some recent limit losses I couldn't really disagree. Off I went to the 200 NL tables on Party and started winning right away. Hard to win big in games of this size but I'm up several buyins and I find it easier to log hands at NL than limit. I don't mind playing longer sessions because I've finally built up a deepish stack with some others at the table, and I can 8 table the 6 max games without much trouble. I'm a pretty poor player but I'm winning by just being squeaky tight so far. I think I'll try the 400 NL soon and see if my rockish style can get the money there. If not, I'll come back down to 200 NL and start lagging it up like I really want to

Just grinding away at that and doing some wedding planning this week. My fiancee and I head to Seattle for another wedding on Tuesday so I need to get the hands in now and maybe even make some money.

I’m sitting in the San Antonio airport waiting for my flight home which we are nice and early for and decided I need to catch up on the last several days’ events. I left San Diego Tuesday for a poker-filled trip to Commerce with a couple side trips to the Bicycle Casino for Live at the Bike (www.liveatthebike.com). Just before leaving I took another large loss on Party Poker…something about those games just is eluding me. I’ve now twice built up my bankroll in Party 20/40 and 30/60 games only to give all the winnings back and have to start over. Looking through my Pokertracker, all the LAGs I view as poor players are up on me – I’m not sure where any of my winnings are coming from honestly. These guys seem to do so many things wrong but they win pot after pot and I just fold away or get raised again and again on the big streets. Every time I look them up I’m beat but I still have the feeling they are just taking pots away from me. They certainly have the postflop game to be extremely frustrating if not outright better players than me.

So with that loss fresh in mind I headed to Commerce for what I hoped would be some relaxing, winning poker. What I found instead was loss after loss, session after session, in game after game. I lost in 100/200, 60/120, 40/80, and even the 10/20 NL which I tried just as a change of pace. I even played in a tournament on Wednesday night which started out with me finally running hot and building a huge chip lead, only to see a string of losing hands put me back to a short stack as the blinds rose. Finally I got all in with top set vs a flush and didn’t improve. A typical result for a tournament but after my roaring start and sudden confidence, a very disappointing out-of-the-money finish and return to my recent mediocrity.

The only bright spot of the first couple days was watching our friend Crazy Mike play heads up on Live at the Bike and having a chance to commentate on the show. I had a wonderful time and learned a bit about how those guys run a show. I was extremely impressed with the way they fill the time with a variety of topics and transitions, and I think I was able to impress them a bit with some limit holdem insight and discussion of the players involved in the heads up match, who I happened to have some previous experience with. I hope to have another chance to be on the show and see if I have any skill in that field, since I found it interesting and fun, and heard from a few people that I was a good guest commentator.

On Thursday I won a bit at Commerce for my first winning session of the three day trip, and then we headed over to the Bike for another Live at the Bike episode. This time, we played a full ring 100/200 game which included myself, mike l., Crazy Mike, Yosh Nakano, and some Commerce and Bike regulars. I played fairly well, but lost, and Crazy Mike played, well, crazy, but won…there is rarely justice in poker but I’m sure at least the audience recognized the luck over skill factor in this session. Gabe and special guest Norm MacDonald (sp? sorry Norm) helped commentate on the show, which I’m sure the Live at the Bike guys enjoyed, and afterwards we had a nice dinner and some awesome Norm stories, and then played a 20/40 mix game where I finally ran sick hot and won 50 bb in the first 20 min. We finally headed for home with me returning to San Diego with a lot less money than I came with, but at least a happy ending to a disappointing trip.

Since it was nearly morning at this point, I laughed in the face of sleep, re-packed for San Antonio, and my fiancée and I headed off to the airport. I managed to get some decent sleep on the plane and we arrived in San Antonio to a hectic scene of a bunch of poker players trying to find transportation to our friend’s house, hotels, bars, etc. and we quickly joined the fray. My fiancée got to meet many of my poker friends, which I’m glad for and she enjoyed as well, and the wedding was a smashing success. A great time was had by all and we got to explore a city I’ve never been to before and take in some tourist attractions, and even squeezed in a bit of gambling.

And now here I am, sitting in the airport, thinking to myself I’ve had quite a nice time the last few days, enough to forget I managed to lose 20k in the couple days before that. But I’ll be home soon enough and need to start thinking about how I can find some success as a “professional poker player” since it’s been in short supply recently, and my confidence and more importantly, emotional stability are far from their best. A couple friends I saw this weekend are learning NL and I’m thinking maybe I’ll take another crack at that, since I did find some success when I started that experiment a couple months ago, but then gave up on it. Or else I’ll grind away at the limit game, but I need to find some softer games because I’m just not able to play my best game against some of these guys right now so I guess I better just avoid them. Nine days until my next trip, to Seattle!!

I've been away from internet-world for a few days, playing in LA for three days and on Live at the Bike. The trip went really poorly and a bad online session the day before I left leaves me feeling not-so-awesome about poker and stucko for the month. Luckily I have a quick turnaround of a few hours between trips as I'm about to leave for the airport to San Antonio for a friend's wedding with my fiancee. Should be a fun trip and a nice poker-free vacation for a couple days. I'll update more and try for a full trip report from Live at the Bike etc. soon.

The last few days have been filled with grinding online poker, but it hasn't felt like a grind. I'm really doing a good job of playing until I'm done, and then quitting and coming back later. Yesterday was a good example, where I was able to log 2000 hands spread out over three sessions. I think I am playing better as well, but its extremely difficult to separate the feeling of playing well from the feeling of running well. It's also a lot easier to play well when you flop top pair every hand. Even so, I think I am working hard on not making any "default" decisions, not mindlessly calling down, and not playing when I'm tired of playing or signs of tilt are creeping in. I've been playing nothing but 30/60 and have been doing quite well, and I'm thinking about dipping my toe in the 50/100 games again but am a little hesitant after getting destroyed in them every session in August.

Since the month just ended everyone on the forums is posting about their monthly results, and there are some insane numbers being floated about. This is the type of thing that would previously have made me upset that I'm not able to do what these guys are doing, but I realize now that's a ridiculous attitude to take and is nothing but negative. Plenty of people would see my results and say the same thing. It sure is amazing what is possible in the poker world these days, and I'm happy so many people are able to find success. As for myself, I booked a winning month, just around the 10k mark, which at the beginning of the month I would have been disappointed with had you told me I logged 33k hands (a personal best!). But that is a negative attitude so I will just say I am thrilled to have won some money while gaining experience back on Party poker and feeling comfortable in those games. I see so many of the same people in my games now that I know the experience against them will pay me greater dividends in the future, as I think I am learning how to beat my repeat opponents slowly but surely.

I will probably make one Commerce trip this week before we fly off to San Antonio for a wedding, and I just found out we may play in a 100/200 game on Live at the Bike, but I'm not certain yet. Back to the tables!