- Putting on big boy pants

Obviously things have rebounded. One of my former roomies at Eau Claire and a fellow poker player that will remain nameless (I'm not sure if he even knows/reads this blog, but all the hilarious stories involving him from the past could come swirling back if we're not careful) has been grinding the $2 180 man sng's on stars for the past couple months with decent results. Now despite his success, he knows that there are many leaks he needs to plug and that he will make a ton more at them soon. Seeing his consistent success even without A+ poker got me to thinkin:
Me: You know what, Fatty?
Me: What?
Me: I think you should probably try to play a bunch more 180s and see how they go.
Me: Yeah, but I haven't had any success at them yet this year.
Me: But you've only played around 200...could just be running bad. Plus, if you get a lesson and really check out some of your shove adjustments, you could make some serious cash in a short period of time.
Me: You so crazy, Fatty.
Me: True that, yo. Let's go get a burrito.
Me: Greek style?
Me: Nope, just regular type.

That was actually excerpted from my head. Sweet.

So, since June 1st I've added 180s to the usual fare of 18s and 45s. Mid-month result-fest? Let's do it.

509 $12 180s (yeah, real high roller over here...) with 92% roi and $5395 profit. Yes, it's impossible to keep making $10.60 per game at these, but it feels great to get a good jump on them. Kind of like the feeling you get when you see a cat jump from a telephone pole like Rocky from the old Bullwinkle show. Go look it up on youtube. Seriously.

I'll forgo the other results thus far since they've just been rebounding from the May crapfest. However, I will drop the subtle fun-bomb that yesterday was the best day of poker in my entire life. I made more in a 12-hour stretch than I've made in any tourney and more than in several winning months. James watched for awhile and will vouch that I really didn't do anything wrong - just everytime I got my chips in a spot that they had to go in, I would win. Sure not every time, but nearly every crucial all-in I took down whether racing or crushingly ahead. The 3 180 wins alone accounted for $1800 of the profit which was barely half of the day's total. Pretty incredible to have a day like that (but I doubt I will have another day like that for a very long time, maybe ever again).

On to other news -

Had to make a really tough decision this month and, to be fair, I'm still not sure it'll be the right decision in the end. My Mom's side of the family goes on a major vacation every other year. For the past several trips, they've gone to Kiawah Island, SC and rented a huge four-story beach house (just south of Charleston, near the Georgia border). Since I've had theme park gigs and KFW, I haven't been able to go for 9 years. After looking forward to this trip (starts June 21st) and hyping up the fact that I would be there, I had an awful May (as already discussed). Thus, my bank account here and back home was too depleted to get a plane ticket early.

It really isn't an issue of "not enough money." I mean, Mom and Dad offered to cover the trip knowing that I'd pay them back. The problem is that I'm living in LA, wanting to play trombone, sleeping on the floor, and having to pay a lot of student loans. I'm tired of it being a massive monthly struggle that I can't overcome. I figure if I go to Kiawah, I'll have a buttload of fun that can't be measured in dollars (my uncles and cousins are just a bunch of college kids at heart - beach parties and getting kicked out of go cart tracks for a whole week). But, if I stay, I'll not only save the 4-5 hundo plane ticket. It'll also guarantee another 6-700 games (even if they don't run great, it's still an average profit of 3-5/game...call it a min of $1800) plus a $2400 'cash incentive' bonus that pokerstars is just offering this month. I guess I can't shake the feeling that 2400+1800=all the soundproofing stuff I've wanted to get so I can start practicing again+a bed+a keyboard so I can get the composition stuff going again. By not going, it's a $4500-5000 difference. Frankly, that's just too much to pass on right now. The tough part is that I have a lot of disappointed relatives now and there's no good way to explain this. Mom and Dad understand, but are still sad. I mean, I don't lose sleep over too many things, but I've had a rough couple weeks over this. Oh well. I don't know.

Colingilliland.com should be fully functional within a week or so. I'm planning on spending some more time setting it up (read: Yardley is pretty much the best teacher at this stuff...I'll probably just annoy him with all my stupid questions). Might be moving this blog over there. Will keep you posted.