P90x = amazing but 200NL blows

P90x. It's finally here and I've never been so excited and motivated to get back to working out. This should be a great program and give me something different to do while I'm not playing poker. It also beats the hell out of the monotonous workouts I usually do in the gym. Upbeat stuff that has proven results will be great and I think my mom is going to try and jump in on it too. That should be interesting.

This past weekend one of my family friends got married and WOW, it was a blast. Threw a great bachelor party on Thursday that involved a party bus around Houston. The rest of the weekend continued to be more debauchery and all I remember after the wedding on Sunday is still being awake Monday morning outside on the driveway with 2 beers in my hand and my friends dad walking out for work. Mission accomplished= great weekend. Got to see lots of friends and family and it was awesome having everyone there together at once.

The Houston Astros officially blow. What a lame season but that's ok. The Houston Texans have a great defense this year and we are really hoping to make that break and get to the playoffs. As long as Andre Johnson, Steve Slaton and Matt Shaub stay healthy on the offense I think we will sneak in. Won't be easy since the Colts and Titans are in our division, but we play both of those teams pretty tough. I am really stoked about going to opening day against the Jets and my gf is coming in town so she will get it come to her first Texans game. (She's a Titans fan). Bahh. Sidenote: The Texas Longhorns are the future national champions. Sam Bradford can suck it. Tebow, you scare me.

Poker wise it's been going great. I have really been crushing the 100NL 6-max tables with a couple of shots at 200NL. One part of my game that is really helping me is thinking about my bet amounts more instead of being on auto-pilot. Fellow shipshape crew member texanssocer07 and I had a quick conversation and it involved betting the smallest amount to win the pot. If you really think about it, most people auto-pot most the time. A bet of 1/3 or 2/5 of the pot gets the same thing done most the time and in the long-run you can really see your BB/100 hands increase by 1BB or 2BB. This is a huge difference over 100k hands and most the time when u bet the smallest amount with air, the double barrel bluff isn't as expensive, and usually works.

Taking a shot at 200NL did not really work out too well for me. Did well in the beginning but took a series of bad beats/bad action hands that had me down 6 buyins in an hour. One hand in particular, I limp AA UTG and of course no raisers. Flop comes A99, bingo! UTG+1 pots and I flat. I check-raise him after the turn brings the 2 of spades and he insta-shoves. I snap call and he tables J9 off. I'm excited because I am about to scoop a 300BB pot, but ooops. 9 on the river. Love it. Thank goodness for BR management because I did not tilt after this, but instead dropped down in stakes and I've managed to get it all back plus 4 more buyins on top at 100NL. MiniFtops is on its way and I've begun the satelites and $T accumulation. So far I've jumped into Event #1 via a 4 person HU shootout and I did a superturbo saty to the 200k double deuce then unregistered. There is a contest going on pocketfives here. It involves taking your top 10 miniftop scores and putting a point system along with them. Top individuals and teams will get paid out at the end. Rivermeplz and I are trying to put a team together and hopefully we finalize this because it will be great motivation and a great chance to make some extra cash.

My graph would be much better but that 200NL session killed. I know people always say you have to improve your non-showdown winnings, but I really do not beleive in this because there are so many styles of play and you have to go with what is most comfortable to you and what works the best. My whole reason of playing is to make sure the "winnings" line is constantly going up and that I am constantly improving my game by plugging leaks and places where I'm spewing off money. (Hand 22.5k is the 200NL shot). In the graph on the right I am hoping to sustain that winrate for the 100NL games but it's going to be tough. Hopefully the doomswitch does not set in (knock on wood). GG. Shipshape.