AMT's blog

So, it was definitely a different summer here.  Normally, I spend 4-8 weeks in vegas, live with other poker players, and play a few live events, a few live cash game sessions, and do a bit of partying.  This summer, however, I lived in a big house with just one friend who lives out in vegas full time, with a non-poker job, and a crazy dog. 

I must say, it was relaxing.  I got a lot of time to just focus on playing a few tables on the laptop, watch a few poker videos and produce a short one as well, and go out for some nice dinners (notably, SW steakhouse at the wynn, and Musashi, a japense grill/sushi place that was fantastically delicious).  I didn't play any live with the exception of one short 1/3NL session waiting for kleath to bust out of the shootout.  I was really disgusted with the preflop rake and increased rake caps imposed on the cash games at the rio this year, but I guess I can't say that I'm too surprised.  At least I got my healthy dose of epic FT sweats as I try to get every year, whether for myself or for a friend/colleague.  This year it was Manchild, Chancescards, phwap/bonafone, ansky, and as usual, Peter "Apathy123" Jetten.  Congrats to everyone who FT'd a WSOP event including those I've left out of the list that I've made acquaintances with.

Now, it's time to return to D.C.  I'll be grinding hard for a few weeks (before heading to Israel for 10 days for a good friend's wedding), something that I'm partially looking forward to.  On the one hand, a post made by a friend on his blog (post located here) really struck me recently, and is often how I feel about MTTs and sometimes about my poker game as a whole.  A lot of what he writes, says and feels about the market really applies to a lot of things in poker, how the industry runs, even down to people's attempts to "Beat the games" in both industries, so to speak.  On the other hand, his passion for continuing to study it, to learn to beat it, to put in the hours towards reaching his goals despite his self-proclaimed failures is similarly inspiring, and is definitely still how I feel about poker.  I plan on continuing the MTT grind, and also working some PLO cash games back into my regiment.  It's what I think I'll enjoy, and what I feel most comfortable with (especially coming off by biggest day ever on July 4th, with wins in the stars $55+r and FTP early $163 for a ~70k day and my personal best day of poker to date. /brag.) I'll also be working to develop more ideas and plans for MTT content for DC and perhaps a video series in this realm, though I have no intentions to produce said content in the immediate future with my somewhat volatile august/September plans.    

Hope everyone had a great summer and an enjoyable WSOP for those that came out to Vegas.  Good luck to everyone playing the Main Event. 

-A