Less than 40k Hands to go

I didn't realize how long it had been since I wrote last. I was thinking it had been three months or so. Obviously a lot has happen since then; Baby, back issues, more poker.

Mckenzie has been great. She is two months now and has been smiling and cooing. Preston has warmed up to the idea of having a sister. I can't wait till she is old enough to play together. I haven't been playing as many hours the last couple months because of my back. I will get to that in a bit. It has given me more time with the family. Since Jenny is nursing, I spend a good portion of that time with Preston. He really likes to play with his stuffed animal friends having them talked to each other. It's very entertaining to watch.

I have had a sharp pain in my back for about six months now. The xray found arthritis but that is not where I am having the pain. I just started up with physical therapy again along with the chiropractor once a week. The physical therapist found a lot of knots on the right side of my neck, back and shoulder. Apparently I need to start using the mouse with my left hand too. I have also been getting massages twice a week to try to loosen and stretch things out. It has been two weeks of doing all this along with exercises and stretches at home. So far there has been little improvement. I plan on taking a week off at the end of the year, which will be the first time I have gone more than 3 days without playing so hopefully that will help.

I just got over 960k and I am getting anxious to get there. I plan on getting done on the 23rd. I get two poker tournament buyins and travel expenses. The EPT finals in Monte Carlo is the biggest buyin and best place to go. That will be in April. I was thinking about going to visit my family in Isreal before the tournament. I haven't been there since I was about 11 years old. The second buyin I will use for the WSOP. I think it might come with a suite at the Palms for a week, but I am not completely sure. We were going to use one to go to Atlantis in the Bahamas, but we didn't want to travel with the baby so young. This has been one of my best years and though I miss some of the excitement of playing tournaments it has been nice to be able to have more flexibility with my hours. I also don't think my back could take sitting for 10 hours strait like I used to do. I played my first tournament since the WSOP in Vegas. It was the WSOP circut event in Tahoe a few weekends ago. I was doing pretty well and had a chance to be the chip leader with about 50 players to go. I had 97 on a T997 board and got allin vs a guy with A9. I'm almost 90% fav there, but the Ace came on the river. One of the tougher beats I have had, but I was happy I played well since it had been a while.

I went to my first playoff game of any kind when I saw game 2 of the World Series in SF. I went there with Scott, Marc and Ted. Scott and I got some tickets off scalpers in the 2nd inning for $350 and then met up with Ted and Marc at Momo's after the game. Even though I am a Dodgers fan it was pretty exciting to see a game of that magnitude, I couldn't pass that up. There is a bunch of us going to see the Kings vs Heat tonight which should be pretty cool too.

My next post will be when I get to 1Million.