Glad to be back home . . .

Well to put it bluntly April was a nightmare. Had big expectations in April looking for that first solid live score and never really came close. Between myself and the other guys that I had action with we could only muster up 1 score in about 15 attempts, maybe even a few more. At least the one score paid for the trip expenses wise, but man it was pretty disappointing. I kind of went deep into day 2 at San Remo, finished 180ish and ran my huge 11 BB stack blind on blind into AA when I was holding Qs, just kind of summed up the trip. Monte Carlo was the same BS, last level of day 1 get in with 2 pair to a guys over pair on the turn, only to get counterfeited on the river for a solid stack. As soon as I busto'd that I was on a mission to get home as fast as I could, I had no desire to be in Europe any longer. I was missing my wife Sarah, and was just looking forward to getting home and getting back on with the online grind. May is "make money month", as I've been slacking lately and haven't been putting in much time, or when I do haven't been performing. I'm normally really good about getting time in and performing every month, so it's time to get back to the basics.

On a side note, Europe was a lot of fun hanging out with the guys I was traveling with (therookieqq9, celticFC, improved, bcforrest, scosset and thenorfman) and being able to pop in on my sister and her boyfriend in Madrid. I rarely get to see her these days and it's always a good time when we catch up and get to have a few beer together. Also haven't seen some of these guys in awhile, we all crashed last year in the same house in vegas, so it was good to catch up with them and was a nice reminder of the good times that lay ahead in vegas this summer. I haven't decided exactly how long I'll be out for the WSOP this summer. I'm about 90% sure I'm going back to school this year in September to play soccer, UNB (University of New Brunswick) soccer team has a good shot to make a run at nationals and I want to be on board for that. I still have a couple more years of eligibility and have always thought about going back to play with a better team, and this is the only chance I'll have left for that, as they are going to be shite after this year when they lose all their senior players. So it's this year or never, as I'm not getting any younger. So might not be out for the WSOP the entire time as I'll be training with the summer league they have going here. I mean, Europe also reminded me how much I hate sitting at a table all day to bust 2 days in and not get anywhere. I just really don't enjoy it, and think the quality of life on the road is horrible. I'm definitely going to be playing a fair amount of live poker in my life, but I never want to follow the circuit around, not my idea of a good time.

So far since I've been home I've grinded my face off online. I've found a couple scores this last week, 1st in a 100r at stars (small one), 5th in the 100r turbo at tilt, and just a ton of runs everywhere. It's crazy how many top 25s I'm getting and not having a ton of love late, but that's how it goes. . . . happy to be back at it, and hoping to have some good news to report here by the end of the weekend. I'm off for a wedding and won't be able to play the 2.6k event in the FTOPS Saturday(annoying since I love that they finally went back to this, much softer field and probably a larger prize pool). But I will be home for the main event and other evening games on Sundays, so lets run good for another week please!

Take it easy all,

Russ