So, March/April is coming to a close and it's been a struggle for sure. I'm at my parents house all this week so I decided to set up my office and try to grind my way to unstuck for the month, which started yesterday morning (way early for me; 9am). It was my first time pairing up with someone in 4man's (my buddy thath thuper) and we started at 80's and crushed, so that was good. I'm definitely going to be doing that often now for more side-action.. It's always nice to try new formats and switch up game-types when you're down-swinging too - I've also been dabbling here and there in PLO - mostly 6m cash and rush, and a few HUSNGs - and I feel like the transition really isn't that hard and games are currently softer than NLHE. 

Watched the Celts lose to Miami in game 4 - kind of gross to see D Wade completely dominate the last XX minutes for an epic comeback/win, but I doubt the series is going past 5. 

After Celts I played in the FTOPS event #8, 500+35 w/ a 1,024 person field. I was definitely in the right mindset to be playing, and I feel like I pretty much ran over the first 3 rounds - each match lasting ~ 10min I think. I realized also it's huge when you are in an event like this to minimize distractions and turn off AIM. I might post some hands later on - haven't really looked through all of them or anything yet but I know there were some interesting spots (most of my big pots were resteals and stuff, but a couple big barrel spots). I definitely went into this knowing I'd start off very aggro and adapt from there, and i think I played 99% solid and to the best of my ability. I forget which round it was that I went out - 3rd after the bubble for a ~4k payday (only got to keep 40% but could have been worse if I thought to sell more action to Primo lolol). It was against some Russian guy that snapped at some point late and started restealing my damn steals and resteals, and I was a little too slow to adapt and ended up getting it in with 12bb's; AT<78 - GG. Very happy with my performance overall tho, and glad I could finally get my backers some results. 

On a less interesting note; I've started a new routine starting this last week which is working out for me; going to bed at a somewhat normal time and waking up between 9 and 10am, eating breakfast (I'm eating much better in general which was one of my goals this month), then heading out 10 minutes down the road to a pretty sick mountain (Pack Monadnock in NH). It's a great way to start a poker-grind-day taking a couple hours to get some exercise, absorb the morning sun and just relax and enjoy some solitude. I've also been listening to some good classical music before sessions (it makes me feel smart! :p ). Basically, working on a somewhat flexible routine to balance all the aspects of my life better (not just poker obv). 

So, here's to the rest of the month going as well as these last couple days, and obv transitioning into May for some CRUSHing. My BR, even w/ the win, isn't close to where I'd like it to be, but at least I can pay all my bills now and stop feeling like a hobo.

-MPR