What's this....a poker blog you say?

I actually was reminded of this fairly recently by a friend of mine who brought it up and spoke pretty glowingly of it, so I figured I'd update it. Once again this doesn't necessarily contain specific poker stuff(although I do promise I'm going to try and start updating this with specific poker hands and results soon). It will be an overview of where I'm at now, and what's been going on in my life, and my poker "career".

Let's start with the obvious. I finished Year 1 at my school, and just had my year end review interview where I spoke at length with my teachers about where I think I see myself going, and what they see me doing, as well as getting back my "marks"(although marks aren't really super important at this particular school, it's more about impressing the teachers so they think of you when opportunities present themselves) back. That said, brag time, my marks were basically across the board fantastic, and the meeting went as well as I could hope(it's always nice when the people who hold the key to your future and all the contacts you need and opportunities you'll be presented in their hands tell you they think you're doing great and you're a pleasure to be around). Ironically one of my highest marks came in writing, so let me be the first to tell you all how incredibly blessed you are to be reading my genious poured out before you ;)

Right now I have a summer job, paid surprisingly, in the industry editing together a ton of stock footage for a new website that's being launched, which occupies a fair bit of time but ultimately nothing too serious(~30 hours a week, a nice, fairly light work week with decent pay). I also have a couple internships on the go, and a couple more potentially starting.

So so far, the future looks so bright I gotta wear shades. If only I owned a pair....

As for poker, I'm trying to make the transition from SNG grinder to MTT player, and it's naturally been a bit of a process, but with the aid of some friends who are way more comfortable than I at tournament poker, it's coming along fairly quickly.

I'd like to give a shout out to one of those friends here, my old roommate Griffin, who has had a brilliant month of June :

1st in the FTP $100k guarantee for $24,000
1st in the FTP $25k guarantee for $8,200
1st in the Pokerstars $33k guarantee for $6,500
Won a FTP $12k WSOP seat package
3rd in the FTP $25k guarantee for $3,300

Obviously an enviable month, hopefully soon I'll have some results like that to share. I've learned alot lately, and I'm starting to get real comfortable playing tournament poker, so I feel like that time is coming relatively soon.

Since I'm on a roll, one more thing I feel like talking about, and that's the G20 summit in Toronto. Although I'm not in the designated "red zone" where all the fences are up, I'm about 3 blocks from it...and this morning I woke up to the sounds of sirens, which basically haven't stopped all day...the sounds of army helicopters flying over head, the visual of black smoke clouds from cop cars on fire, and reports that the city is being smashed apart by protestors.

I will never understand how smashing the hell out of a store is helping prove a point. I will never understand why people can't behave in a civil manner when protesting(or when they win, if you haven't seen the video of the cab being smashed in LA after the Lakers win, see if you can find it, it's deeply disturbing that people call that celebrating), but more to the point, I will never understand why this city did such a terrible job organizing this, or why it's even here.

First of all, if you're holding something like this, there is a perfectly great area to hold it just outside of the city, it's photo friendly, and it's much easier to shut down and contain(I'm talking about the area around Molson Ampitheatre and The Ex.

Secondly, are you telling me there was no way to alert people inside the red zone exactly what protocol was going to be heading into the event? The event started and suddenly they started arresting anyone who was within 5 meters of the fences that didn't have ID. Nice work. A word of warning would have been nice next time.

This whole thing has been so rediculous, and such a drain on this city in so many ways. I don't even understand why the thing needs to be in a major city, take it somewhere where this chaos may not happen and shut down major sections of the city. Honestly, this shit happens every year with the protestors, why don't you stop plopping it in the center of major cities?

Oh, and not to mention I had my fun when on Friday I was stopped by 8 cops on bikes who circled me while they made me empty my schoolbag(nowhere near the red zone walking through a park).

So ya, good for the G20.

That's about it, hope you enjoyed the read, maybe next time I'll come bearing stories of glorious triumphs....

But probably not. I run really bad.