Thank you!!

I had a fantastic poker lesson yesterday and recognized a lot of my leaks, and since I am sitting at work doing absolutely NOTHING I think its a great time to post.
One thing I realized is that I am getting way too far ahead of myself at the stakes I am playing. I have the information to beat the micros, but I choose to play in a way that just doesn't make sense because for some reason in my eyes that's "good poker". I also tightened up my calling range, and I am starting to spend more time looking at the entire situation before I make a decision (i.e. stack sizes, any notes, how many people in the hand). I realized that I started auto piloting a lot and repeating the same lines because they had worked for me in the past. I feel a million times better today, and I am going to continue to implement these principles and hopefully gain back the bis I lost pretty soon. Unfortunately, I have also been running terribly, but I feel like I have been playing well and it doesn't bother me as much. Another thing I recognized is to notice when I am tilting. What upsets me the most is when I feel like I played something really badly, and I get very obviously frustrated. I can recognize this and stop. Other times, I get myself into a bad situation and even after its over there is some frustration bubbling under the surface. During my lesson I would mention how it annoyed me that x happened a few times until my teacher finally said, "You are tilting, and you need to take a 5 minute break." It surprised me because I didn't notice that I was actually so focused on how the last hand annoyed me that even in a slight way I wasn't playing my best. So, I took the advice and felt much more on top of my game when I resumed. Overall, things are looking up, my BR is not so happy but I am going to keep a positive attitude and keep grinding that 2nl!

In other news...
I am heading out to California in a month from today and I cannot wait! I am really looking forward to doing more outdoor activities to balance out how much I sit on my ass and play poker :P I'm going to go back to school and start getting my life in order, so I am also super pumped about that. Also, I'm going to road trip up the east coast and visit all my friends/family in new york, dc, and vermont. This summer is going to be great, and I am really looking forward to it!