Trying to get that feeling again...

Yawn.

For some reason I have not been able to get enthused about playing online poker the last couple of weeks. Maybe it's the end-of-the-summer blahs, which seems to have dumped me into a deeper-than-normal pit of depression. Maybe it's the newest artistic bug that bit me, making me try again to write through ye olde writer's block and expand my modelling and massaging work. Maybe it's the "bad beats" and lost races, making me more choosy about when and what I spend my playing time (and money) on. Maybe it's the impending brief return to Las Vegas (Sept. 8-14), centered around my niece's wedding.

Whatever. There still have been some sweet results recently on the faux felt: second for $42 in a GFN Buy-In on Sunday at Absolute Poker; 96th for $33.78 in the PocketFives Open on Sept. 1 at PokerStars; third for $8 in the Poker Analysis Freeroll League Monthly Bonus Game on Aug. 31 at AbPoke; wins in GML's #24 Limit 5-Card Draw on Aug. 24 at PStars and #21 NLHE Six-Seat on Aug. 21 at Full Tilt; and a top-10 finish in the Grinders Mix League's August standings (got up to 3rd before depressing away the final week). Also cashed in a The Big Little Tournament at FTilt and a Beat the Brunson 10 bounty event at Doyle's Room, and played well and had fun (though didn't cash) in OFC (Doyle's), WPT Legends Main Event (AbPoke), Mini-UBOC (AbPoke), Todd Brunson Montana Poker Challenge Weekly (Doyle's) and Stoners vs. Staff (Reefer) tournaments -- all since mid-August.

Maybe by the final days of August I was just a little burned out from challenging more higher-profile (and higher-entry-fee) events. And the weather and real-life chores were changing. And I admit to being a tad disappointed to be doing good, but still not as good as I want. And running into things like what knocked me out of a turbo tourney yesterday (Sunday) at PStars: my AA vs 88, we got it all in after the 10-high flop, the turn was an 8, and I was out of the event one card later. Last weekend I also flopped second-nut flush and got it all in against what turned out to be the flopped nut flush. There seem to be more tales, but you don't want to know, and I don't want to remember; tg for a bad memory!

Bring on the real play in Vegas. That may be what I need, poker-wise. A table you can touch with live foes and chips I can fumble. If nothing else, it'll be fun and a distraction.

I shall return ...