By Adanthar on November 24th, 2008 (more posts by author)

A few of my politics cashouts are still outstanding, but the other day, I got a very big check from Intrade in the mail. I've gotten bigger ones than that; after I won the Million a couple of years ago, I spent a day reloading my banking screen and looking at the six digit transfer. But this check may have felt better than that one did; while that cashout came from a single tournament that, taken as a single entity, you basically have to simply luck out to win, this one came from eleven months of constantly making decisions with very little luck involved. Everybody and their mother has a politics blog these days, but opinions are a dime a dozen, so to have my understanding of how things work validated on a daily basis, then summed up with a nice reward at the end, brought the memories back.

While staring at that check, though, I also came to a realization; it's time to get back to work. Since the WSOP ended, I've really done very little of anything other than keep up with political activity, and not playing poker outside of Sundays made me a)a little rusty and b)a lot whiny when I lost (let's face it, playing a half dozen tournaments a week, the suckouts inevitably ruin your mood). I've even taken off the last two Sundays, one from being sick and one from general slacking, so I'd done nothing of substance since ~11/6. In the long run, I guess I could theoretically get away with never working again because we don't spend much money and our finances have been steady even when I've run bad, but if I wanted a fast way to gain a hundred pounds and being unable to talk about anything but what's on TV, I'd rather become a competitive eater, not couch...err, laptop surf. Also, the fact that Tony can vacation in Hawaii and still put in more time in a week than I do in a month, while standard, is typically retarded of me.

So...on Friday, I spent several hours eight tabling MSNL; Saturday was my wife's birthday, but today, I put in eight more hours playing the usual tournaments. Both days went well, even when I was playing more tables than I usually do, and I also got a 41'st place in the Mil (ending on another bad beat story, but then again, I ran like God earlier) out of it. Prior to Thanksgiving, I'm spending at least three of the four days playing more MSNL, and my goal through the end of the year is to log more cash game hands than the rest of the year combined. (Note: this isn't actually going to be at all difficult.) Ideally, I'd like it to be more hands than the rest of the year, period (still not that difficult, lol) but let's take that one step at a time.

In the meantime, I'm gonna keep enjoying the Intrade check.