But Dane? How has poker been going?

I totally promise to keep doing results at the end of the month, sorry I am so lazy that I didn't even do that. Here is a brief recap of the months I missed.

June: Bad month, down over $3k. No final tables, had several finshes 10th-18th (Which means the table right before the final table.) Very disappointing but poker players have to realize it is part of the game as well at looking how to improve that aspect.

July: Up about $2k. A little bit frustrating because I did make 4 Final tables that month. Best cash was a 4th place in a $20 rebuy event for $2651. 3 other 4 figure scores as well, but not a win!

August: Pretty bad so far, I have a few sessions left this month to turn it around, but it's not healthy
to press on the 30th just because of a bad month. Poker is a very LONG term game, some players won't even look at the monthly results because it really does not mean anything.

Overall strategies/summary: I am playing a lot more satellites on Full Tilt and I am really enjoying being able to play some of the major events with literally the best players in the world. It's a total trip. Now to win one of those for 6 figures...well that would be pretty sweet.

Life: I LOVE my new apartment in northeast Minneapolis. What I don't love is the weight I have been gaining due to 20 years of a horrible diet. So I am going to the gym minimum 2 days a week with a trainer and actually eating well, it's really weird. P.S. If you haven't seen me in a while, I'm not a massive blob or 300 lbs or anything, just getting some love handles that I'm not a real fan of.

When Happy in life, you treat others better.

That sounds like a really obvious statement and it is. The challenge I am presenting is: Can you still treat others as well as they deserve when you are unhappy? See take my father for example, now in no way am I insinuating that my dad was a horrible father by any means, but especially during maybe my ages of 7-15, he was extremely short tempered, often crabby and at times just seemed annoyed by everyone. I just figured he didn't like us, after all, having twin boys must be hard, especially when one of them decides he is going to paint his nails and play with dolls and the dream of having your boys playing catch together in the yard fades away. He may not have liked that so much (by the way, my dad and my very gay brother are extremely close now, its weird. They are like serious drinking buddies and they talk way more than we do.) But then I think about it: My dad worked at a huge law firm in downtown Minneapolis, but he wasn't a lawyer. He was a tax accountant working in a shrinking division by the day. Imagine being the only non lawyer around a bunch of asshole lawyers all day long, probably assuming he was one until the conversation of where he went to law school came up. In fact, my dad doesn't even have a bachelor's degree, he has a 2 year paralegal degree from North Hennepin Community College. So I'm sure he felt out of place and was not treated well at this job. Fast Forward to 2002 and he was finally able to just Fuck you to those people and ended up starting his own business, hanging out with friends again and really enjoying his life. All of a sudden, he was like a different person, yes, that family temper is there every now and again but he is so much calmer, so much funnier. I guess my point is, it's a lot easier to treat others well when you're life is in order, but a lot of our lives are not. A lot of us struggle everyday, so challenge yourselves to still treat the ones you care about with respect dignity and love, even when your day sucks.