Gearing up for Australia

I am working on conditioning myself for my trip. Since I am on EST, and Melbourne is 16 hours ahead of us I need to work on adjusting my body. Since I have ~6 days I am starting now. I am going to try and stay up a couple hours later each night, and sleep in accordingly. The plan is to be as close to Melbourne time as possible when I arrive, otherwise it will be like starting a 14 hour poker session at 8pm.

My job is kind of flexible, so it will work out, I will just be working later into the evening.

Since I am going to be up later, I am also going to take advantage of the alone time. I have started re watching some of the pokerxfactor video's. I havent played a ton of tournaments lately and there is definitely valuable info on some of those videos.

I've picked up a couple of books with my stars FPP's. I grabbed Ace on the river, Sklansky's No Limit Theory and practice, and Tournament poker for advanced player. I figured they would help pass the time during the ridiculously long flight. Early in my online poker days I read tons of poker books. but noticed the redundancy of play tight rhetoric. I think books can be useful to a beginning player, but that everyone needs to develop their own game, and nothing is better than experience. I will probably read more of the AOTR than either of the other books, just b/c I hear its not a theory type book.

I am also planning on ripping some of my favorite CD's and loading them onto my IPOD/mp3 player. I have a couple of mp3 players, and most of my music is stuff that I have encoded off of sirius. So thats a solid task to get done in the next few days.

Did I mention I dont have a passport or visa? I sent of an expedited application on friday to an agent. I ended up having to pay about an extra $300 b/c of the rush. New years day holiday and the federal observance day for president ford really cost me :-( It appears I will get my passport back on mon/tuesday, and I depart on wednesday. I need a passport # in order to apply for my visa/ETA which could take a couple of days if my name is similar to a person of interest. Fortunately (I am hopeful) my name is kinda unique and shouldnt match with anyone else. Although in high school I had a kid in my school whose first name was Jeremy and our last names were the same except for the first letter. So I just hope he isnt a person of interest :-p

I put in about 200 hands of NL tonight, and played 2 STT's. I didnt fare well in the STT's. Busting out early in both. In the second I had QQ, and ran into AA on a rag flop. The thing that killed me was that this guy limped utg with his AA, I was in bb and raised pf. he flat called. I bet pot on flop, he called. I bet 1/2 pot on turn (another rag) and he raised. I put him on top pair or a pp higher than the board and pushed on him. He showed me his AA, which coincidentally was the same hand he had the hand b4. Back 2 back A's and he was in good shape.

I did do well in the NL game though and won back my buyins plus an additional $20. So I am in good shape for my weekly target.

I havent had a chance to finish my draft posts, but will probably do it while staying up late these up coming days. I'm definitely getting excited, and anticipating all the fun I hope to have in Melbourne.

My progress will be blogged online, and I will provide a link here, and maybe recap my thoughts on my blog. I have decided to only share the blog link with any of my friends outside of blog world, and with my wife and parents. I dont want the attention, and if I do win a big prize I am a little apprehensive about how my friends might feel about it. I am more inclined to keep it private and feel out everything when I get home.

On a related note, I didnt want everyone at my office to find out why I was going on "vacation", but word has spread. I work for a small company <30ppl and told just 4 ppl. Friends of mine that I have played home games with, and a guy who works for me. Somehow the word spread and i think everyone (or close to everyone) knows. Its not that I'm not excited or "proud" of my accomplishment, I would just prefer to be a little more private, and rather everyone didnt know about my poker hobby. Obviously some ppl just consider poker gambling, and look at gamblers as degenerates. I dont want people I work with forming a negative opinion about my lifestyle. I dont feel like educating them, nor defending myself either.

I live in the "bible belt", and there are definitely extremely conservative ppl in my company. I like everyone I work with, and have a good relationship with all of them. So I would really like to keep it that way. This blog is my way of "discussing" and recording my thoughts on poker and life and that helps me to develop personally without having to share my life with my coworkers.

I only have 4 friends who I discuss poker with, 3 of which are players, 1 who is intrigued by the game and is trying to learn. Other than that I dont discuss poker with any of my friends b/c I dont want to look like I am bragging, or explain my swings to them.

Well that turned into an extended babble, I'm sure it is lacking direction, and a worthless read. Its real simple though, if you dont like it GTFO! Did I mention I got some xanax from my dr? I have never taken xanax, and plan on test driving them this weekend. I go them basically b/c I am a little apprehensive about my flight, and to help me sleep on the trip. I have an issue with flying. Its not too bad, but its more of a lack of control anxiety. The same thing happens sometimes when I ride in a car with bad drivers. If I am not in control of the situation I get nervous. I have never been able to sleep on flights or during long drives so hopefully they help. hell they might even help b4 the mainevent starts :-p

well thats all i have for now. I am going to hit up another pxf video and go to bed in about an hour or 2.

good luck at the tables, and thanks for wasting your time reading my blog!