The Half Year

The other day, a friend pointed out that it's been six months (and three days) since Black Friday. Wow. Time flies.

It seems like just yesterday I was putting the final touches on my 'office' in Sacramento and now, well, I'm more than a thousand miles away, living in a different country. In honor of this thread on 2+2, I thought I'd post a "Then and Now" type blog entry about how my life has changed.

Living Arrangements

Six months ago, I had signed my lease for a 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo in the Natomas area of Sacramento. I had planned to convert the second bedroom into a poker office and bought the chair/desk hours before the DOJ made online poker illegal in the United States. While I wasn't in the apartment for long, I really liked the place and was excited about the upcoming months. I felt I had a great mixture of friends/family in the area that would help provide much needed balance and structure to my life.

Now? I'm definitely unbalanced. My life revolves around poker more than ever. It doesn't help that my roommate (and three other friends in Vancouver) play for a living and I spend most of my waking hours with them. I'm living downtown, paying roughly the same amount I was in Sacramento for my share of a 2B/1BA. Obviously the location is better, but the apartment is smaller and I'm a big fan of personal space/privacy.

Schedule

I didn't really have one. I never got a chance to play online (in Sacramento) because BF occurred only three days after signing my lease so I ended up playing a lot more live poker than I had planned. I can only speculate what my schedule would have looked like, but I know that it would be much less rigid than it is currently. These days, waking up on time is still a struggle, but I'm usually out of bed before 11. After that, I'll grab an energy drink/protein shake/diet coke and plop myself in front of the computer until 5 or 6 o'clock. Believe it or not, I actually prefer having a normal schedule, even if I don't always stick to it.

Games

I was playing mostly $16/$27 STTs. Every once in a while I'd load a MTT or two, sure, but 99% of the time it was 30+ tables of 9 mans. And you know what? I liked it. I know a lot of people don't, but that's probably because they were getting crushed by me. If I were playing those games now, it'd be nearly impossible to get the same type of volume. Some have said that the 9 mans are "dead" but I don't think that's true -- I played a set a few hours ago and the players are still horrible. However, as a mass-tabler I couldn't afford to keep playing them so I moved to a mixture of 9s/18s/45s/180s/MTTs. I'm focusing mostly on the 180s during peak daytime hours but am making a concerted effort to get in 9s/18s at night because doing so is literally printing money.

Finances

I should have started out with this one, if only because I want to make sure I say the following: Despite all that's happened in the last six months, I'm one of the lucky ones. While I had to move out of the country and rebuild a bankroll, many other grinders didn't have that opportunity. I know both Matt (glitlr) and Adam (msusyr24) would love to be in my position but unfortunately they have familial responsibilities that require them to stay in the United States. And I'm sure there are several other Americans playing smaller stakes who were improving their game, a day at a time, with the hope of becoming a professional. Now that dream is on hold and they're forced to return to 9-5 jobs that aren't as profitable, enjoyable, or fulfilling. All that said...

It's undeniable that I'm in a worse financial situation today than I was on April 14th. Of course, I doled out a fair amount of cash after arriving in Sacramento -- A huge chunk went to the government and I spent a few thousand on moving expenses, which included the purchase of couches, bed, and other furniture. At the time, I had around $14,000 on FullTilt and Ultimate Bet and have yet to see a dime of either. Plus I was staking a few players and my funds/their roll also remains frozen. Aside from that money, I'm currently involved in a stake and the player is in for nearly five figures. I'm fairly certain I'll get the money back, eventually, but I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't worried about it.

Conclusion

Do I wish things hadn't changed? Very much so. I'd love to be back in the U.S., surrounded by friends and family, playing STTs and live poker. I miss that laid back sort of lifestyle, as my schedule in Canada is much more rigorous. I probably shouldn't use that word because I'm still clicking buttons with my shirt off for a few hours a day, but whatever.

But after the Bahamas fiasco, I don't think I could have ended up in a better location. I like the area, I'm somewhat close to home, and I'm in a position (age/income wise) where I can afford it. My current plan is to finish out my lease through February, spend a few weeks back home, then move to Thailand with Ben (N0Bigdeal) and perhaps open a Spacegravy-like training center for aspiring 9/18/45/180 man players. It's definitely not the life I envisioned, but I'm eager to see where it leads.