After playing WSOP events for six weeks straight and spending so much time at The Rio I felt like I deserved a break from poker to recharge a bit. So, I spent the next three weeks with my girlfriend just hanging out around San Francisco. I attended a wedding in Seattle and played next to no poker (except for a 80$ tournament at the local card club where I was building, but then lost two straight flips - SO SICK!). I had a great time and was definitely sad that I didn't have more than a few days to explore Seattle, because it seems like an amazing city.
As great as my vacation was, I was very excited to get back on the online grind after being away for over two months. I wasn't really happy with neither my volume nor results online for the year (no doubt that they are intertwined, as it's always more fun to grind when you are winning). With the EPT win in Copenhagen, I had pretty much locked up a winning year regardless, but the idea of having my first losing year online was a bit devastating, especially since I have always been so vocal about how hard it is to have a losing year playing online MTTs if you just put in enough volume. While I do think I was still +EV in everything, I have reflected a lot on the reasons for my mediocre results ,and I do think a significant part of the explanation was that I just hadn't improved as much as I thought I had. Sometimes it hurts a bit to admit that you aren't as good of a regular as you think, but on the plus side it meant that I have been forced to reflect on a lot of the stuff I could do to improve.
So, coming back to London I was eager to get back on the grind, and since I got back I have started to make some crucial adjustments. Everything has just clicked (obviously I have been running extremely well, too). I think I played 25-26 days in August with my biggest score being a win in the Saturday $320 for $21,000 and a bunch of smaller scores. Having a good winning month was such a relief, and for someone who deals with as much self-doubt about their poker game as I do, just booking a solid winning month that was made up of a lot of small scores and good volume was a really nice feeling!
I am currently in Denmark for the first time since the EPT in February and staying with my good friend Rasmus "bigoots" Sibasts in Copenhagen for September so we can grind WCOOP together. These big online series are a lot of fun, but when you play every day it's also a long and tough grind, so being around someone who is going through the same thing makes it a lot easier and more enjoyable. In summary the game plan for the next three weeks is something like this: WCOOP, WCOOP, WCOOP, WCOOP, WCOOP, WCOOP, WCOOP, WCOOP, WCOOP
Good luck to everyone during WCOOP, hope to see you all at the tables!
Check out my blog at mementmori.com for more blog updates during WCOOP!