Poker in London

Since ive been here ive played a small spattering of online poker. Just played 2 tournaments today-2 suckouts. Meh. I dont really care. Last week one of my roomates and I went down to a small casino located down the street. This place has 2 roulette wheels, a couple blackjack tables and a bunch of video poker machines. After 40min of blackjack, about a shoe and a half Ethan ended up 50pounds and I won myself a nice 20pounds. We both ran like death during the first shoe, Ethan was down to his last 10 pounds, but then managed to turn it around and go on a tear. While we were there we learned that this casino has 2 tables of cash game poker. Its a 1/2 game w/ a 50min and 500max. Due to the fact that this casino is basically a whole in the wall I expect the cash game to be a bunch of regulars and not too much fish. Nevertheless we learned that their busy night is Sunday so i think that Ethan and I will give it a shot tomorrow night.

As some of you may know the WSOPE is happening right now in London. Apparently the Empire Casino which hosts it is actually very close to my flat. Its located in Leicster Square, a 15min walk away where I have been clubbing a couple times. One of my classmates actually sattelited into the first 1k event through a 50r and played with Antonio Esfandiari and got to see pros like Ivey and Negreanu. The Empire seems to be a legit casino which would spread a much wider variety of games. I Definitely want to head down there and see if their games are more fish infested, or maybe even just catch a glimpse of the main event.

Happy New Year

Sorry its been so long since the last update but things here have been super busy. Monday thru Friday I need to leave my flat by no later than 8:30 to get to class or work and will not get home until either 5 or 6 depending on if i had work or class second. Despite the hecticness this past week has been a ton of fun. Ive made some new friends and really enjoy spending time with them.

Unfortunately, I got sick yessterday and it was not pretty. As some of my friends know when I get sick i get really sick. It was only a cold/sore throat deal but it sucked and prevented me from going out. Hopefully it gets better so i can taste dinner tonight. Heres to drinking lots of tea and soup all day. Speaking about dinner, im very excited that Dane, my flatmate and Aly, who lives uptairs are going to cook Rosh Hashana Dinner for us all! Its going to be great.

It would be a very big shame to spend all this time in europe and not go anywhere outside of london. Thankfully my friends are planning a trip to Wales for October, and Im trying to get an Amsterdam excursion together for November. Id really like to see Portugal or some other country too but idk if its going to happen. Id also really like to see a rugby or soccer game. Hopefuly ill be able to.

Thas enough for now, Im going to go blow my nose til its raw.

Hope everones having a good semester

Quick Update

I have an interview at Parliament tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

London Day 1

I wanted to write a post today but I am absolutely exhausted. Today i arrived in London via Eurostar and wandered around the city with my parents. Tomorrow I have LIP Orientation and begin my 15 week program. Its going to be very exciting and im kinda nervous but right now, more than anything im exhausted so im going to go to sleep.

Peace

update

Ok,

For the last couple weeks life has kinda sucked. My mom got really sick as a few of my readers know and taking care of her pretty much dominated my life. Stupidly, i decided to play poker while caring for her because there were times where i would get bored and have few other options. Obviously playing under those conditions was stupid and each time i would quickly lose money and get pissed off. I am not one to believe that feeling bad and having negative vibes will make you a magnet for bad luck but sometimes its hard to argue with that feeling.

I played a couple times after my mom recovered and still just didnt see positive results. Obviously downswings are natural and somewhat common, they just tend to hit me pretty hard. The worst part is, id love to grind through a downswing and try to just put in a ton of volume to wait out the variance and earn sick rakeback but it becomes a pain to play when im downswinging so i put in less volume. I have no earge to play when every time i log on i lose money.

How bad was this downswing? I went from a high of 640 to a low of 500. Luckily some friends owe me some money online which should total 100 bucks so most of my losses are negated.

On to this coming semester:

As of now I am in Paris France. Im chillen here with my parents until saturday when I will travel to London and begin my semester abroad from Clark. I will be taking three classes at FIE and interning at Parliament under Jenny Willott. I honestly have no idea how much of a role poker will play in my life this semester. I am happy about the timing of my downswing if nothing else. I have no urge to play full tilt right now. I am not craving the action. this is good because with a intense work/school schedule I am unsure how much time i will be able to devote to poker. Ill find out the answer to this in a couple weeks im sure.

Ive noticed that a large number of people in my program have started blogs to document their travels. I think i may just use this blog to talk about my goings on. If you dont mind reading about my european adventures, then this is still the place for you. If you only want to read about me failing at poker then...sorry :(

Good luck and Bon voyage!