Poker Siren October 17
I played at the Bike couple times since my last journal entry and my sessions were decent. On Monday, I played in the usual NL Holdem game with $5-$5 blinds. Right out of the gate, I lost my buy-in when I flopped top pair, top kicker against an aggressive guy who likes to make moves. Unfortunately, he had the goods and I didn't get a miracle to beat his set of nines. Awhile later, I won a huge pot which got me more than even. I raised to $30 with pocket kings and got two callers, the aggressive guy and Halli's brother who was in the blind. The flop was jack high with two of a suit. I bet $90 and got called in both spots. The turn was a king of the other suit (so now there were two flush draws on board). Halli's brother checked, I checked behind (knowing the guy would bet) and he didn't let me down with his $250 bet. Halli's brother called and I pushed the last of my bet out (which was only $25 more) and they both called. I announced, "As of now, I have the nuts) and was praying for a blank to come. The river completed one of the flush drawsand I was bummed until I realized that my hand was still good. Skye said he had the straight draw and the other flush draw. The aggressive guy showed his pocket aces and I took down a massive pot.

Last night went a little better because I didn't start the night out losing. I had my stack built up to about $1,000 profit, but ended up leaving being up $700. The game I was in was great, but I was tired and knew that it wouldn't be a wise decision to continue playing especially once the loosest guy at the table lost more than half his chips.

I am so excited for the Latin American Poker Tour in Costa Rica. I leave in a couple weeks and have been looking for things to do once the tournament is over. So far, Halli and I are planning on doing a tour where we ride our bikes across the island and we plan on doing a river rafting trip and some zip lining through the jungle. I'm sure whatever we decide, we are going to have a blast.

October 12
Costa Rica is only a few weeks away and I am getting more excited as the day approaches. Halli and I are going to spend 10 days there because we want to experience the country and culture and not just the poker room.

The step satellites on PokerStars have not been great to me. I am pretty good at making each one last awhile (I get a lot of freerolls), but have not got any farther than I what I had a couple weeks ago. I still haven't played the step 5 or step 6 yet, but plan on doing it this week. I did learn something interesting about the step process: I can play the PCA satellites (better choice because of the frequency) and then use the step 6 PCA ticket to buy into any LAPT or APPT event. This has worked out because the PCA satellites don't have much of a wait time for them to get going.

I plan on playing a little live action tonight. I have gone to the casino a couple times this week, but both times I was on an errand to pick up some money. Last night I stopped in for a second to talk to a couple friends. When the floorman said "you aren't going to play again?", I knew it was time to put in some hours. I usually do much better when playing live action rather than playing online. I definitely need to start going back to the casino a couple nights a week.

October 3
I have been spending a lot of time playing the step programs for the LAPT event in Costa Rica and for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. So far, I have accumulated several step 3's and 4's in both events. In the LAPT. I have a step 5 and in the PCA, I have a step 6. I have no idea when I am going to play the 5 and 6 though. I have to be rested and in the right frame of mind especially since they aren't turbos and usually last about an hour and a half.

As far as tournaments go, I haven't been playing many lately. The Bike is holding their Big Poker Oktober series right now and I haven't played one event (partly because they only scheduled one Omaha Hi/Low tourney and zero Horse tournaments). I plan on playing one NL tourney next week, but we will see how it goes.

If I do miss the Bike tourney, then the next event will be the Costa Rica tournament in early November (regardless of whether I win my seat or not). I bought my plane tickets as soon as I knew the official dates. I am surprised they are holding the event during the elections, but I will make sure to keep my eye for the updates and will vote by absentee ballot before I leave.