Back in the grind

I'm going to go with the easy-way-out entry full of notes.

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It's funny why I'm a winning player. It's not because I'm particularly good, although I would certainly place myself in the better-than-average category.

What's interesting is that when I look at my gambling spreadsheet this year, I find that all of my profits come from bonus whoring and rakeback. At the tables themselves, I'm slightly down for the year! But I'm way up overall because of bonuses and rakeback.

I don't feel too bad about being down in actual play because I did a lot of experimenting early on at different limits and shorthanded games. Research often costs money, and I think it was a worthwhile effort.

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Speaking of bonuses, the Empire Poker redeposit bonus started Thursday (bonus code JUNEFEVER). It's a 100 percent bonus up to $100, with a 15X (1,500 hands) workthrough. I went ahead and deposited $600 into my account so I can four-table NL$100 there.

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The reality of the expendable bankroll is beginning to set in. I figured out how much money I have left in my poker accounts after living off of it for a couple of months. I'll be using that money to survive when I move back to Atlanta until I find a real job.

So I have a few thousand dollars of poker money to party and travel with for a while. I mean, I figure I'm willing to use my poker money for a good cause, and avoiding the real world seems like a noble endeavor. When I work again, I'll just rebuild.

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My friend Daniel over at Poker Cats is once again in Vegas! Wish him luck.

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Upon my return to the States, I'll travel straight from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to Tunica for a weekend of gambling. The next weekend, I'll be in Vegas at the same time as the World Series of Poker main event.

I can't wait!

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I'm beginning to work with some friends on a competition to make a quality poker bot. This bot is not for online play -- the purpose of it is to try to make a smart computer program that can play poker. It's part of a competition called the WSOPR (World Series of Poker Robots).

We're just starting the planning on this, but if anyone has any ideas or resources on building computer programs that can play poker, let me know.

It's interesting to me that it seems like there is no poker program that's a truly effective opponent against good players. I've read about a couple that supposedly do well, but I don't know of any that I could test out.

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Coming back to the no limit tables after vacation is funny. I had so much pent up aggression/gamble that I blew a couple of buyins when I finally got to play again. But now I feel like I'm back on my game. And it was fun to mix it up with a little gamble.