Dancing with the Old Lady, the Journey continues...

EPT Prague Day 6 : Day 2 Main Event and Feature Tables

Things felt like they were on the up and uppp when I showed up at the Hitlon Hotel today, headed towards my designated table and saw a sign that told us to report to the Feature Table. Alright. Not too shabby, right, as given that life gave me a CLEAR premonition of success just before I binked the tournament in BSOP Sao Paolo, I figured that the turn of events would not be cruel enough to have me defend my BB on the third hand on the feature table vs the suposedly WIDE as frack range of the chip leader/Poker Stars ambassador - I have no idea who the fellow is… -, flop the nut flush draw with A♥x on the Kxx♥♥♥, XR it 5x, somehow not get a snap-fold, get villain to shove on me with :

And... I... whiffed... :(

No worries though, as there is no better way to untilt/recover some EV then jumping into the 1.1k PLO 08 right, as there will be a TON of older spewtards and younger overly aggro clueless pros except…. Except I even managed to trap the clueless arrogant young victim of FPS, leave him with a mere 10% of scooping the high (no low draw) until…. He fracking gets there 😡 He would also be the one to eliminate me a couple of hours later (when his weaker A3xx holding got there) and I was therefore left busto, on the walk of shame and steaming like a 19th fracking century full vapor train 😡😡😡:p

It took me 30 minutes of pacing around the cold greyish streets of Prague before coming back to life with a smile… 😀 After all, I have the most amazing gf in the world - albeit emotional high maintenance 😉 ;

, get to travel the world, I speak multiple languages, am healthy as **** for a 47/soon to be 48 years old, am capable of taking down plentiful of fracking 20 something young lads with yearsss of MMA experience during sparring sessions yo, I have a BR on the verge of cracking the 7 digit threshold, am about to purchase a house in Les Laurentides in Quebec, got my shyt together, am a confident lad, happy and yet…. And yet I needed to repeat myself the above multiple times just to get myself off the ground and I oftentimes lack gratitude…. Ehhhh… :( And this lack of contentment, as I am forever striving for more…. Which comes as a blessing, of course, and a God damn curse, obviously!!! Why the malcontent, one would ask…. Perhaps one most go back into the childhood years, back towards the education that I received from my parents, that being the best in school, was simply not enough…. Am not sure, tbh, but it is definitely something to investigate more, especially for an analytical mind like mine that fully realizes how this life passes by so quickly, how we are so fracking vulnerable in the face of Variance and whatnot, and yet, this humility is not sufficient to spark Gratitude, what gives, ffs!?!?!?

Anyhow, on to the 1k NLHE tomorrow ; we got this yo

Dubnjoy, so so sorry to hear about the nut low breakup with L

but ver happy to hear about C!!!

You absolutely got this yo, thanks for posting sir [emoji41][emoji41]

I don't think that forever striving for more is something bad, is just what keeps us moving forward. The day you say 'I made it! I have everything I ever wanted!' is not far away from the day you die sitting in front of the TV.

The fact that you are aware of all the good stuff in your life and all that you achieved so far is what makes that crave for more a healthy pursuit and a driver for growth, and not a painful and hurting mental program that won't lead you to dying of old age in front of a massive TV but will make your heart explode one random tuesday afternoon after working and stressing yourself to the grave.

Best of luck in the rest of the series and thanks for bringing your write ups back to 2+2.

EPT Prague day 7 : 1k NLHE

2 bullets and I could not get anything fracking going, ehhhhh... :( I guess it didn't help that I had my nose stuck in my phone - albeit we did have a fun conversation going with a Brazalian and French lad yo -, that I was lacking that drive to fracking win, that none of my major bluffs got through, sigh and a thousand times sigh 😊. Oh well, tomorrow is the 2.5k Mystery Bounty, our last chance to make something out of this live MTT trip - am presently dead even ffs 😮:shocked:🙄 - and WE FRACKING GOT THIS YO

Hey friend, amazing to see you back active on the forum And C >>>>>>>>>>>> L, and it is not even close yo ♥

I definitely believe that striving for more is for the most part positive, but like many qualities/defaults in life, I definitely do not believe it should be treated in a binary matter and that there are several levels of nuances to this variable, me thinks... As an example, the ideal man for me - and I am happy to say that after 47/almost 48 years walking in this Bottom World, I am becoming/am nearing the 100% level of the person that I always wanted to be/become... -, is someone that has a STRONG amount of determination, ambitions and projects (and realizes most of them) etc., but that can also combine this desire for achieving more in harmony with being in the present moment ; I always come back to this image, but for me being able to sitting fracking down on a balcony during a random sunny afternoon sun accompanied by a loved one while sipping on coffee/mates/beer and being FRACKING HAPPY AND ONE WITH THE MOMENT AT HAND is a pure sign of your present happiness levels. That being said, while I am a pretty happy lad in general and strive in the latter mundane balcony moment, I fracking lack gratitude for the life of me!!! With everything that I have achieved thus far. With where I am in life in general. I don't know... I think part of it is the education/pressure I received, while another factor is being exposed to so many successful people in the poker world (both regs and recs). Then again, I have done extremely well as a midstakes reg. But not so much in comparison to highstakes regs/rich recs from the real world. And why should it matter... Especially when I spend most of my time in LATAM surrounded by struggling peeps... I don't know, but I am noticing that real life peeps have more gratitude than I do... End of digression.

EPT Prague Day 8 : 1.6k Mystery Bounty

What a strange day... from committing 85% of my chips on the second hand of the tournament with T high after reraising river 5.7x (and getting a fold), to losing a flip, a 75% and another flip close to the bubble which saw me stand up, thinking I was busto (but unexpectedly had 2bbs left), to sunrunning and winning a flip (6.5bbs), getting a jam through (9bbs), to winning another flip (20bbs) to cracking AA with 89s after losing a flip 🙄 To getting AQo to 4bet jam on my AA and seeing a Q89 J T runout 😮:shocked:🙄, to 4bet jamming JJ vs TT, seing the T86 flop, 9 turn and J river, to finally moving on to day itm with 15bbs (average 25bbs). I am hoping for a favorable table draw, having a few stacks covered and binking a few bounties yo. We got this

Sounds like a standard day at the office!

EPT Prague Day 9 : 1.6k Mystery Bounty day 2

And... that's all she wrote :(. Things were looking positive - almost predestined, I wanted to believe... - when I showed up at my table and noticed that I was the 4th chip leader thus having an unlikely4 smaller stacks than me at an 8 handed table, with a CLEAR chip leader and the 2nd and 3rd right within striking distance yo Except... the chip leader, thirsty for blood that would make your 19th century Bounty Hunter salivate like no tomorrow, was opening 70% of his hands/calling any all-ins and getting there with his trash, ehhhh :(. So within the first 4 hands played, we had already alas lost the 2 shortest stacks and I found myself barely covering the two other inferior stacks, ehhhh, so when the chip leader opened to 2bbs UTG and I looked down at ATo OTB, I decided that an estimated 67% range advantage, was sufficient enough chip EV wise, given that my bounty EV had been seriously damaged and that ICM is negligent at this stage. Of course, villain snap-called with KJo and ehhhh... fml :(

I am off to Montreal at 3am this evening for a couple of weeks. My dad just got diagnosed with prostate cancer, will be turning 79 soon and given that we now have a great relationship, something that was seriously lacking all those decades prior, I will be enjoying our father and son time (my mom will join us in 5 days). Family time is priceless yo ♥ And so is our lifespan/ticking clock in this bottom world, right, so it will be good to finally step away from this 2 card/4 card game of ours, and get back to existential emotions like love, life, death, father-son dynamics and what it all fracking means in the end and all... 😉

I should remain semi-active on this blog moving forward ; nothing compared to yesteryears, of course, but given that C and I will be staying in separate flats (she owns her place and cares for her mom), I will thus be a bachelor from Monday-Wedenesday before she shows up for the Weekend, meaning that I will have much more time than back when I was 24/7 a family man with L, and should hence be blogging perhaps weekly... 😉

I will also be back to write more in details about my goals for 2025, but, spoiler (without being one really 😃😉🙄) : a big part of it will be training in preparation for an eventual MMA fight yo The odds of it ever happening are probably south of 25-50%, but I will nonetheless motivate my training by giving it my ALL as if an imminent brawl until death depended on it yo Disclaimer : I probably could fight within a year if I chose to square off solely in a Muay Thai dual, but given that I want to be a complete fighter and all and that my BJJ skills are severely lacking, I will need to get myself on that ground, roll around Jiu Jitsu style with dirty stinky Peruvian men (and women!) this winter, ehhhhh :(

If not, projects will be your standard spirituality in 2025 (a Vipassana retreat and 2-3 Ayahuasca Ceremonies), getting back my online poker grind on track, traveling within Peru and, most importantly, spending quality time with the absolutely-mostest-topest-bestest-firstest woman in the Worldly World in C, of course ♥ In fact, before meeting her, I had never ever felt like "she is the one♥", until that magical spark happened with her 😀. So yeah, establishing progressively a union with her will be #1 goal and... eventually getting a fracking dog yo 😃:p😉