Interesting times indeed...

The last 10 days or so have been challenging, rewarding, tiring, head wrecking and pretty damn interesting. That's a lot of funny emotions to go through in 10days! I can still feel each one as I think back now, it has been an eventful little period that's for sure.

It has been challenging because I'm getting involved in new ventures within poker. As some of you know (or perhaps don't) I was doing live reporting for pokernews.com last weekend in Galway with Nicky O'D. It sounds straight forward doesn't it? "Live reporting". Well to be honest I didn't view it that way. Yes, it was something I wanted to do but I was quite nervous about it. I'm not sure why that was the case, I guess it was cause I'd never done it before. Another thing that has never happened before is being commissioned an article for Cardplayer. Things like these make me apprehensive as I'm eager to impress. It's a challenge. Also I was going to be very active for the entire weekend in Galway which was hardly ideal prep for a Marketing Management exam that I had in Dublin at 9am on Monday morning. A challenge indeed.

The reporting work for pokernews was frantic. I could barely get a glass of water over the weekend! I would imagine that's down to lack of experience. I couldn't count chips accurately, I didn't know any ones name bar Mike Sexton, Roy Brindley or Smurph (hence the extensive reports-LOL!). By day three however I was feeling much better. I discovered that I was capable of doing live reporting and I actually can't wait to do it again! By the time I got home from Galway, it was a case of "out of the frying pan and into the fire". Last minute study was in order and I gave it as good as I got. The exam on Monday morning went really well and the last minute effort payed off. A very rewarding end to the weekend.

By Monday evening I was exhausted. It felt like the whole experience had caught up on me and I was quite drained. It was the type of tiredness that you get when you feel like you've been hit by an elephant. You just feel beat up rather than drowsy and sleepy. I'm sure there's a more impressive medical term to describe all this but I like my description better!

Now for the head wrecking part. Well I suppose my feelings in the previous paragraph should have helped my decision making process on whether to play a Monday night tournament or not. Nah no point methinks sure I just gotta be able to say things like "raise" "call" fold" etc. I'll be grand. To a certain extent, I was correct. I was chip leader at the break with 2 tables left from the 31 runners. Clever thinking indeed. Then it all fell apart. I started playing 3/10 poker and it was "good night Vienna" from there. It wasn't just the tourney that was annoying. My play in general has been poor lately. I've been losing live, losing online and generally performing way below par. I want to get back to winning ways as this is turning into somewhat of an unwanted downswing. In short, it's head wrecking. Especially considering what I have planned for next month.

Yes February shall be a busy month. As Big City Banker once famously said "November is not the month to run bad in". Well for me February is that type of month. I've decided to play the Green Joker Deep Stacks tournament in Droghada. I know a lot of people are unsure about this tournament but I'm a fan. Deep stack poker is fun and it really gives you every chance to prove yourself. With 50,000 chips I reckon you could make (under normal conditions) several tournament costing mistakes and still be in and have a chance.

I'm also going to play the €500 short-handed tournament on the festival's under card and will surely end up playing the Big Slick team event too later in the month. It's not a cheap project for me but I've been planning a blowout for some time and it's a shot I'm looking forward to taking to be honest. Any monies I make between here and Feb I shall be putting towards the venture so expect to see me busy on the cash tables over the next while. Lets hope I can recover some form in the coming weeks. Interesting times indeed.