Graduation

Back in Atlanta, what a difference a few days makes. My sleep schedule is returning to normal and I've been plugging away at the PokerRoom bonus, although with little limits that are far below the bankroll.

Even then, I've been surprised how weak-tight the games are. In the little .50/$1 NL game, I probably should fold to most all-ins on the river.

I learned this the hard way by being beat by oversets that turned into overboats twice at the same table. I lost two buy-ins but still was up $26 or so at the end of the day.

The $5/10 table was so tight that most of these people probably don't make too much money in the long run.

Quicker than I realized, I have five full days of vacation coming up -- in two weeks. It pains me to have to travel again, one because I feel like I just went (which I did), two because the opera is back in town and I'd love to do nothing but catch another one with Giovanna.

But work is work. Crazy as it sounds, I'm headed back to Las Vegas again. I weighed it out -- Tunica was much cheaper -- but Las Vegas has more of everything, the games I'm dying to play now that Mark and I have graduated from small-stakes to middle-limit hold'em, to great restaurants, to just the ability to wander around in the middle of the night when you can't sleep but don't want to play.

In other news, people who I've been out of touch with have come back into my life. Poker Girl finally resurfaced, showing me pictures of the house she renovated and congratulating me on my jump to $15/30. Meg the (former) flight attendant in my building is back, now that her boyfriend dumped her.

It's interesting how the ebb-and-flow (variance) of life mirrors the swings you find at the tables. Just another reminder to stay the course, play your A game and not tilt, and eventually, hopefully, things will be alright.