Mixing business with pleasure

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. :)

Thanksgiving is the day where we should stop and be thankful for what we have. I think we should be thankful everyday but it's nice to also have a special day around family/friends to make a point of it. Once we really take the time to think about all we are grateful for, it can become overwhelming... All the little things we take for granted can add up very quickly to something pretty big.

I have had many people asking me what I was eating on that day since I am vegan. There is actually a wide variety of things on the market nowadays, you can find tofurkey (vegan turkey), celebration roast (my personal favorite) and vegan ham (have not tried it yet but will soon) along with many side dishes and homemade goodies. We went to Mike's parent house for thanksgiving. I ended up bringing a celebration roast to share and gravy. They had a turkey for themselves but they all tried the roast and absolutely loved it! I have to admit, it is pretty good stuff :)

As I have done as a Thanksgiving tradition those past few years, I have also sponsored a few turkey from Farm sanctuary. Mike and I sponsored 3 this year. Those are turkey that were save from slaughter, usually because they somehow escape, who end up at the sanctuary, living a spoiled life, eating well and mingling with people and other animals. Never having to worry about being abused ever again. If you want to adopt one or want more info you can look up www.adoptaturkey.org.
I like different charities for different time of the year, being a vegan, this is my Thanksgiving one, Christmas will be all about kids with toys for tots.

I did miss my daughter for thanksgiving, It's weird not having her around. But she is doing great in Canada and I am thankful for that. I think next year I will try to fly her up for a few days. She misses American Thanksgiving. It is a different date in Canada, a month early actually and not very celebrated in Quebec where we are from.

The week prior to Thanksgiving I went to Lake Tahoe to play the WSOP circuit event.
I was being sponsored by Five Figure scores and Haust energy drink while over there. Five figure score is a company that finds sponsors (Haust energy drinks in this case) and good mid-stakes players. They then connect them together for promotion purpose in the poker industry through the wear of logos while playing tournaments. You can look them up at www.fivefigurescore.com for more info.

I played a few events that week, Main event included. I did final table the ladies event while I was there. I ended up 6Th, I probably would have done better as I came in to the final table with the chip lead but I did picked a wrong spot at one point to make a "move" that costed me quite a few chips. I didn't quite recover after and busted a little later. Oh well, I try not to kick my butt too much about it but take the lesson from it instead.

The fun thing about going out of town for poker is the camaraderie, Everybody is very friendly, after poker we often hang out with few friends and make new ones. At the end of the week we almost all know each other. It's almost like going away for camp like kids do, except this one is all about poker!

Mike came to meet me at the end of the week as he was conveniently shooting a movie scene in Reno. We ended up staying in Tahoe for a few days after the series to ski.
I LOVE heavenly ski mountain! It does not get better that... Fresh snow, mild temperature, sunshine, beautiful lake views. Pure awesomeness! We had so much fun on the slopes. Mike is actually a very good skier, I did not expect that! I am definitely looking forward to skiing more this winter :)

While in Tahoe I also met Sean Mullaly, who is a personal trainer/poker player. I got him to start training Mike. I tag along because I love working out but its great to see my boyfriend out doing some exercise and getting motivated. Being healthy is so important!

I took a nice small break for thanksgiving as far as poker goes. I did get back at it last Saturday and went to the Epic poker tournaments last night. My friend Stacey was the bounty and a bunch of our crew all went down to try and bust her. Unfortunately she was at another table so I didn't get the chance. Her boyfriend, Don, ended up winning and then took us all out to dinner. It was definitely fun times with friends.

For those interested in the Epic Pro/am $1500 tournament, it is on the 10Th of December. So there are still a few chance to satellite it in. That $1500 tournament is the only way to get into the 20K main event if you are not an invited guest. You guys can go to www.epicpoker.com if you want more info on the upcoming tournaments schedule.

I am pretty much gonna focus on cash games in the weeks to come. It is more of a bread and "vegan" butter for me. And with the Holidays coming up, I rather built my bankroll than watch it bleed from tournament buy-ins!

What time is it? Living like a vampire

Lately I have been mostly playing cash games, pretty late as I kind of like the graveyard shift, and I have been doing really good. I did play a nightly tourney at Aria last week which I ended up winning so that was sweet to add to my "rungood".

I see a lot of players starting to play early in the evening, waiting all night for the "fish" and then going home tired an frustrated that they had only a ``soso`` profit.

I don't understand why some people are so stubborn to play early. The games are so good at 3am! It's usually a mix of drunk guys, players that are stuck and on tilt, amateurs coming out of the club or players who have played all night and are now tired. Of course, there are going to be some sharp players, but they are easy to spot and there are so few of them. In most part, majority of the players are pretty bad and make for a good game.

Obviously, when playing so late, there are some downsides... You become somewhat of a vampire. You barely sleep before 9am, you sleep through most of the day and miss on a lot of the day time activities. But poker is about making money. To me, that's where the money is.

The other downside as a graveyard shift poker player is trying to play the tournament circuits. It's REALLY hard to make a 12pm start when you went to bed at 8 or 9am! You would think that the tournament directors would take that in consideration after being in business for so long, seeing that most players are not morning people! I usually need to figure out what tournament I really want to play ahead of time and take it easy 1 or 2 nights before. Even by doing that, it is STILL hard to make it in time!

My upcoming schedule is pretty much playing the Deepstacks Extravaganza this coming Wednesday as well as Thursday at the Venetian, Cash games this week end and afterwards I am off to Lake Tahoe next week for the WSOP circuit event. I will probably play 4-5 events while I am there. I am planning on saving a day or 2 to go skiing at Heavenly, which is by far my favorite ski resort. I will obviously also play some cash games in my free time, but probably on a earlier schedule since I will need to be up early a few times for those tournaments *sigh*

I hope my poker "rungood" keeps up for many more weeks, it's always nice to go on a very long stretch without a losing session in cash games. It kind of makes us feel like gods wanna-be. But regardless of what the future holds and even though my life might seem weird to some people, at the end of the day, I do the things I love to do. I am healthy and happy. I play poker, I am working on a few other projects that I am very passionate about, I have a supportive and loving family, great boyfriend and the most awesome pets.

That's actually better than "running good". :)