Back in action, confident, and very sexy.

"What I do question is my emotional capacity for coping with adversity."
-adspar, 4/15/05

I wrote that after 3 weeks of playing poker for a living. There just isn't any way to prepare for how you'll feel when faced with some situations for the first time, no matter how much you plan or think things through. So very quickly it became obvious to me that a huge question mark in this venture would be my psychological capacity for handling the brutal swings that come with the territory.

I don't doubt myself any more.

I spent the last week playing up in Atlantic City, and then reflecting on my game while enjoying a weekend at Dewey Beach. I read the first half of Barry Greenstein's book and highly recommend it.

Taking a step back and looking at how I've handled various situations so far, I know I'm approaching this the right way. I'm making good decisions away from the table, and my decisions at the table are getting better all the time. In spite of mediocre results for the AC trip, I'm more confident than ever in my ability to make it in this game.

Later I'll probably write more about Barry's book, why I like it, and why it gives me confidence. But for now I'll just leave this image, which pretty much sums up the weekend at the beach with my friends from high school. Luckily I was behind the camera and not otherwise involved in this man-on-man encounter. Not that there's anything wrong with that.