But don't get too excited, what little there was to talk about is partially forgotten at this point as far as hand specifics. Throw in a few random things about the cruise itself, but this is a poker blog first and foremost, so I shan't bore you with the minutia. This will doubtless still be a rather long post, since I have a tendency to be quite verbose. You know this, of course, being a loyal reader of mine for all these years. Right? RIGHT?!?!

Easy peasy flight down, checking in takes less than 20 minutes, text my girlfriend as I get on telling her to meet me right outside the crew area. This being a ship I'm quite familiar with, I know all the ins and outs. Grab my complementary glass of champagne upon embarkation, book it across the length of the ship, get a funny look from one of the cruise staff as I'm sticking my head into the crew area, she comes out happy times yay my cabin still isn't ready. Well then. Putz around the ship, I go through the casino and lick my chops a bit, hang out for a while, then she goes to work at 2:45 for pretty much the rest of the night. Well then, we've got some time on our hands. Casino doesn't open until after sailing, international waters and all that, so I kill time by laying around, getting some grub, throwing back a few beers. Really just walking around the ship laughing to myself that I'm actually ON a cruise instead of working on a cruise. f*ck you captain, I'm wearing sandals, what're you gonna do. Kind of hard to explain the feeling unless you've been a crew member, but suffice it to say I was grinning for most of that first day for a myriad of reasons.

Poke my head into the casino after some dinner at the Sports Bar, which became a favorite hangout of mine, only to see it still pretty quiet at about 8pm. Bummer. They have a video poker bar, which is solid, so I threw $20 into a machine. Two gin and tonics and 45 minutes later, I was broke, and decided to see the welcome aboard show since I never actually saw it when I worked there. Forgettable, it's the same cruise director when I was there, and I loathe this man. As an aside, when I got back home, my roommate had bought new glasses and got a haircut, and he looks like the cruise director now. Arg. Anyway, I pop back through the casino on my way back, and lo and behold, people sitting at the poker table! My heart leaps with joy as I ask one of the gentlemen at the table what the game is. 1/2 no limit holdem you say? With rich old people and a few young hotshots? Yes please.

It being about 10:30 at the time, my girlfriend getting out at 11:30 and the priority being to see her, I only threw down $100 and decided to splash around and get a feel for the game, anticipating that it would be running nightly so I could just get my feet wet now. Not sure what my reasoning was for not buying in full, I was fairly drunk at this point. I also signed up for a NO LIMIT BETTING STRUCTURE TEXAS HOLD THEM POKER MULTI TABLE TOURNAMENT Woot. This would take place tomorrow at 6. Cash game first.

Super super super super super soft. Almost 0 raising pre flop, and when it was, it was less than $10. Sadly, I picked up very few hands. Also, I began shuffling chips more out of habit than anything else, and I believe the table took notice as it seemed they began to gun for me a bit to "take down the hotshot." The only 3bet the entire time was against when I raised some middling connector or something to $10, and then BB randomly makes it like $30 to go. Ok, so it's going to be this kind of game EH GENTS. KQs on the button, two limps, I make it $10, BB limpers call, flop J high, BB throws out $15 or so, fold fold, I fold since I'm not feeling particularly creative, and he turns up a stone bluff of like 8 high. Throws it in front of me a little bit. Hehe. I'm going to LOVE this game. One hand made my cringe a bit though, 67o in SB, three limps, I tag along, BB makes it $10 more, two callers, and I waffle for a good 20 seconds about calling or folding. I'm surprised (and disappointed) my drunkenness didn't take over and make me call in spite of horrible position and a shitty hand. I indeed folded and grumbled a bit when the flop came 778. Eh whatever you've folded bigger hands. BB instashoves his $80 stack into the pot. Fold fold. He tables kings. Arg. Wow. This was a guy I was chatting with for a bit too, he seemed to know what he was doing. Apparently not. Final hand, some cute asian girl sits down next to me and chucks down $200, so I get the sense she means business. Her very first hand she limps, I'm on the button with tens, make it $10, two calls including her, flop is K72. At this point I've got like $30 left since I didn't reload (why the hell was I playing like this again?) so I decide to stick it in, 1 fold, she snaps me off with 77. Damnit cute asian. I knock the table and head back to the room to wait for sex, but not before being an awesome boyfriend and ordering a breakfast room service delivery for my girlfriend. She got a note from the Staff Captain saying she could stay in my room, since generally sleeping with passengers gets you uhh...f*cking fired. So bonus there.

The next day we went to Freeport on Grand Bahama Island again. Yipee. In 16 weeks of working on the ship, I never went there, why would I go there now. She had a crew boat drill at 10:30, followed by a meeting, so I mostly laid around the room. Then she had a pizza making event with the kids at about 2:30, so natch I went up and made myself one and colored a picture and got a ton of creeped out looks from the parents. It was pretty solid. I got to shoot the shit with my old boss for a while too which was solid. She was still a little bitter because my next contract was taking me back there, to the Sky, but I peaced out, and now she's got a team of 13 girls. More hanging out in the room because the ship is crappy and offers very little, she goes to work, and we begin...THE DONKAMENT.

$60 buyin. This is all I knew going in. Way to read up on it Ham. In so many words...it was a superturbo. YES!!!!!!@!@!@@!@1!!1@12 2000 starting stack, blinds 100/200 for 30 minutes, then 200/400 for 30 minutes, then 500/1000 for 15 minutes. Unlimited rebuys this entire time. After that, 10 minute break where you can add-on for another $60 for 5000 chips. Blinds are then 1000/2000 for 15, then 2000/4000 for 15. I'd go further than that, but the tournament didn't, so I guess we'll never know. Obviously a complete luckfest donkfest nutty thing. However, with the caliber of players floating around, it should be easy pickins. 27 players to start I believe, luckily I got a good draw and was at the actual poker table since they only have one there, the other two tables were at converted blackjack tables and it looked a bit crowded.

Easy it was, except for the first five orbits I got nothing. I did get immense enjoyment from seeing it become a limit tournament basically, not based on stack size or anything and everyone playing cautious, but because people were just stupid and awful. Limp limp limp limp minraise call call call call flop, minbet call call call etc etc. Lather rinse repeat. There were like 5 raises on the table ever. A few bustos here and there, my table was especially soft but also especially weak, which ended up hurting me later. Finally I start shoving random hands with position because it's a superturbo, and I've got a bit of experience with push/fold poker. No calls ever, people start getting frustrated with me pushing all in with <10BBs instead of limping or minraising I guess. Blinds go up, I didn't feel like rebuying and throwing tons of money at this prizepool since the structure is atrocious, so I'm nursing a stack of about 2500. Get AKd UTG, steeeck eeet eeen, SB finally looks me up with A6, and I doubrrrres up. Boss. Now I actually have the chiplead at the table, believe it or not, so obviously I start shoving it in lots more. People are folding themselves down to 1 and 2 BBs, I shit you not. They think over these decisions for 20-30 seconds, thinking if they should put their last chip in. It's funny, but it's also hey let's get the f*cking show on the road huh. This one man, Gunther, nice enough guy, but RIDICULOUSLY chatty, always taking forever on his action. He was awesome though with all of his theories on poker and how to play correctly and throwing out odds of hands winning and losing. It was brilliant stuff, I should've written some of it down.

Reshuffle the tables a bit, we're down to like 20 or so, still plugging away. Blinds still 200/400, and I definitely botch a hand, not to my immediate detriment, but it was silly. Had about 3000 on the BB, folds to button who shoves for like, 700. Blech, I don't relish having to make this call with 25o, SB calls, I decide to tag along and hope to get super duper lucky, heh. One big hand and I'll coast to the final table, and for 300, somehow I convinced myself it was worth it. Flop is A3J, check check, turn is a 4, and I blow it. SB bets 800, and I shove it in. What the hell hand does the SB have that's going to hurt me, a person is all in, he probably isn't bluffing at a dry side pot, he's got something, let him hang himself on the river you stupid idiot, take the rest of his chips. No flush draws, I have 0 worry about a boat. Bah. I'm still bitter about it! He obviously folds, saying he had a 4, but he's probably going to call a river bet as long as the card doesn't suck too bad, because he DOES suck too bad. Anyway I take the pot and have a really nice stack of about 20BBs.

Blinds go up to 500/1000 and now my stack sucks again. I begin raising. I picked up a bunch of nice hands, one stretch I went in three times in a row right before the break, so that was a solid boost. But the table was 6 handed at this point, and the blinds came around quick, and with the few raise/folds or raise then they call and bet the flop after I whiff, i was still only at 8000. Bah. Last hand before break I have 44 UTG and stick it in, table collectively grumbles at me and all fold, I'm feeling friendly so I flip up the fours to show I'm not a dumbass. I take the addon for 5000, so stack is 13000 with blinds at 1000/2000. Noice. Go back to my room to have a piss, settle back in, knock out a shorty for a few thousand, but them blinds man. Stealing opportunities became less and less actually, so I hovered mostly. People kept dropping out though, and I feel fairly confident at my chances. 12 left after three people bust in one hand on my table, couple new guys come in, then three more rapid busts and we're on the final table. Woot. First live tournament and I make the final table, I am so so awesome. Free drinks all around!

Sadly, this is where my weak passive soft original table hurt me big time. I had about 16000 with blinds going up to 2000/4000, and three guys that came from the other table were all 25000+. Damnit, I thought I was sitting pretty. Sadly again, those were the only stacks I really noticed. I'll explain in a second. We deal for the button, and the beautiful ace of spades falls right in front of me. With blinds what they were, having the button was GINORMOUS. I was super pleased. Very first hand, I haven't even gotten my free gin and tonic yet, it folds to me on the button with K9o. 4BBs and K high on the button, sure. SB instamegafistpumpshoves. f*ck me. I don't manage a masterful suckout with trip nines or some goofball straight and get roasted by his pocket kings. Well god damn. Hey Ham, you want some salt? Yknow, for that wound? The entire thing lasted 4 more hands. Hamwise was not wise, as there were 5 other stacks that were 1 or 2 BBs. I shit you not. I was "comfortably" 4th with top 3 getting paid. God god damnit damnit. I thought about it a bunch afterwards, and had I noticed, I really might've been able to find a fold despite the strength of my hand, since I made folds like that a lot in superturbos. Bummed myself out a bit, but in the end I'm fine with it, I stand by pushing there as it most definitely has to be plus ee veeee. Results orientationingggg ftw. At least I learned that the guy who busted me had a clue and was fairly solid, but I got him back a bit later in the cruise. Anyway, blinds being what they were and the final three stacks being what they were, they went for a chop for about 850 apiece. Real nice score actually. First would've been almost 1500 I think, second about 950, third 500ish. Oddly enough the pocket kings guy from the first night managed to get there, so good on him. More money for him to overshove in on the flop nyuk nyuk nyuk. I brain farted and forgot to mention cash game to all the railbirds still floating around, so one didn't get going until much later when I briefly passed by at like 11, longing for the goodness. Obviously girlfriend is winning out here, since I get 4 days out of 4 months basically that I get to see her. Yeah. f*ck that.

Nassau we did our usual Nassau thing when we worked on the ship, went to a nice but pricey Thai restaurant, went to the beach on Paradise Island, hit up starbucks, went back, took a nap, went to work. But this time I didn't go to work, and it was awesome. The Sports Bar had been running a promotion every day from 5-6pm for 55oz of draft beer for $15, which is quite a deal considering a beer is like $6, and 55oz is lots more than a beer. I was going to do it the day before but then remembered the tournament and really didn't feel like being drunk for my first live gig, so I partook this time with gusto. All they offered it in was Heineken though, bah, but I sucked it back like a champ as we sailed away with Paradise Island and Atlantis slowly receding, and thought to myself that yes indeed, life was f*cking good. That night I just putzed around a bit, not knowing what to do without my glorious poker. Met the lady for dinner but didn't eat, just kept her company, since I decided on a whim to go to the Italian restaurant onboard which was my favorite. It delivered, I had nice wine, I was happy. Blew through another $10 in video poker, but at least it lasted over an hour this time as I doubled up early on with four deuces. Put my name on the list for a cash game, watched a ton of blackjack and craps, decided against sitting in on the blackjack game since I don't find it very fun for some reason, wandered the ship a bit, drank some more, shot the shit with random people also watching the baller $5 blackjack table. No such poker love tonight. Ended up in the room somewhat early and got cheesecake and a BLT for the lady from room service. Keep in mind that I worked on this ship for a while, so really, I've seen and heard it all. It doesn't really excite me, I'm not just some wandering loser not knowing what to do, heh. I mean I kind of am, but I've no interest in seeing shows or musicians I've seen 20 times over already. I'm not a loser SHUTUP.

Final day rolls around, NCL's private island, the abomination that is Great Stirrup Cay. I make a token appearance and hang out with the girlfriend since she had to work on the island all day, and I got good food from the passenger buffet line for her and a bunch of the counselors. 4 trips. Nice. Go back, shower up, and get ready to play poker, determined that it will happen, hanging out in the casino until it does. I even tell her if I'm not in the room, I'm in the casino.

It's about this time that I remember that they're running another tournament at 5pm! Woohoo! I debate not doing it because of the horrendous structure, but in the end I plunk down my $60 ready to take it down. Only 10 people this time, so it really is a superturbo sng now, my bread and buttah! Excellent. Very first hand, crazy slovakian man UTG raises to 600, and I look down at TT. Feh. I hate having to rebuy. I shove it in, he snaps off with 66, I holdapotamus, 4000 chips. Boss. Three hands later I'm in the big blind, loose old guy limps in the hijack, SB limps, I check it with KTo. Yeah I could've raised, but with stacks this small and calling stations abound, I don't like my options post flop unless I connect. Flop T42, SB minbets 200 because they all do that, I call to string along old man since I figure I'm good here like always, and he obliges. Turn is a K, SB bets 400 now, I minraise because I'm a donkey, old man CALLS it cold, leaving himself about 400 behind, SB shoves, I snap it off, old man calls as well. SB had T4 (yikes!), oldie had K9o, and I rake in another 3500 or so. Holy monkey. At this point I'm pretty sure I'm going to win, heh. Cards go real dry at this point though, make one raise with Ako, woman who actually kind of knows what she's doing calls, BB calls herself all in leaving a sidepot for us, I cbet a Q high flop, she calls, then we check it down and she flips TT, also beating the BB. Fair enough. Crazy slovakian guy keeps shoving and losing, though in his defense he got rivered twice real bad. He ended up rebuying 6 times.

People continue to drop, and by level 2 we're down to 6 players already. My stack continues to dwindle, unfortunately, while the TT woman has won a shitload of hands and has about 20k+. Good thing she didn't know how to use it or she could've ran the table over. Not much more action for me, I try to steal a few times and get caught, getting pretty low. Down to 5 people now, still in a far far second from chipleader, and it's pretty tight between me and third and fourth. Fifth has a blind left, and he even decides to rebuy RIGHT before the break for 2000 chips when half his stack would be in on the big blind. I'm the SB, put him in with 22, and hold. Woot. Get to the break, two people take a quick piss, then we keep on trucking. The crappy old man from earlier is the only one to take the addon. Top 3 get paid, and I'm confident I can make it without the addon. I have 9000, bad guy has 7000 after rebuying and adding on, other old guy who's friendly and halfway decent has about 3000, chipleader...who knows, still 20k+. First hand I'm on the BB, grrrrr, UTG man pushes, chipleader folds, crappy old folds, I have to call with any two in spite of my horrendous hand. He holds, I'm down to 6, he has 7, other guy has 7. Next hand, chipleader folds, bad guy shoves, I fold, BB CALLS! They have the same chipstack, so somebody is going home and I'm in the money barring some weird chop. Decent guy holds, I forget the hands, and ship manies. Woo. Gentlemen throws out a chop, I said maybe wait another 13 minutes until the blinds go up because then it'll be a real crapshoot. Mostly I want to see if I can pull off a double, then start swinging my stack around. I push. A shitload. They get confused. They fold. By the time the blinds are going up, I've got about 14k, old guy has maybe 8, chipleader is down to 20k or so. I mention chop again, we talk briefly, woman wants to play it out because she has the big stack and thinks she can win it. Silly woman, you do not realize you're playing against Ham, superturbo professional. I continue pushing. They continue folding. I begin to show hands every now and again, sometimes both cards, sometimes one, generally the good one, but every now and again the bad one. Bad strategy? Probably. But I want to keep them honest so they keep folding, otherwise they look me up with J high against me rags and win. And it's a friendly game anyway. We find out the payouts are $421, $256, and $171, so either way I'm making up my money from the first tournament basically. Noice. Chop would've been high 270's or so I think. It didn't add up right the way they did it, but whatever. I literally don't get called on any of my pushes until finally I push into the old man with T5o, he looks me up with 44, and I flop a 5. HU, she's still got me by a couple thousand, but I quickly change that in 4 hands with a push over her limp, a push, she folds her SB, another push. Then she pushes finally, I almost want to call with K high but decide against it. Next hand I have fives, I shove, she throws her hands up and calls with Q9o. Fair enough, I don't blame her trying to pick off the young cocky sonofabitch. Flop A78, turn J (oooh gutterball!), river 6 and I fade the bunches of outs she has to take it down. Boom goes the dynamite. Nice. I'm actually pretty stoked, and a little sad as I realize this is my third biggest tournament cash ever. Hahaha. I'm not much for the donkaments. But really, this was excellent because it paid for all my expenses onboard and all the stuff getting to and from the ship and airport and all that. Boss. Now I'm also determined to win more at the cash game and pay for the cruise itself. Hehe.

Sure enough, at about 10:30 after putting my name on the list, I hear an announcement that a poker game is starting. Oh thank christ. I had been watching a blackjack table with a guy who ordered about 4 rum and cokes in the hour, hour and a half I was floating around. He immediately pops over too. Nice. Seat 1 is a very friendly talkative older gentlemen, seat 3 is the crazy slovakian who rebought a bunch, seat 4 is drunky, seat 5 is a guy who I played with the first night who wasn't good at all, 6 is a nice guy who I chatted with for a bit who had an idea of what he was doing. It being 6 handed, I splashed around a bit with a little money to show for it, just trying to get a feel for the table. Crazy slovakian lives up to his reputation of being crazy and making a lot of bets and generally getting involved, but he hadn't shown down ridiculous hands really. Like, the hands themselves were bad, but they turned into halfway decent hands once the cards came out. Drunky splashes around a bunch and plays pretty passively but makes weird donkbets now and again. We get a 7th, some guy to my left who doesn't do much, and the action picks up a bit. I get black kings in MP, make it $10, slovak calls, drunky in BB calls. Flop is QJ9. Damnit. It's always a stupidass flop. Check to me, I bet $20, slovakian folds (phew!) drunky calls and donks the blank turn. I don't believe him since this was his normal line with just about any hand, he donked $20, I raised him $60 more, he sloppily calls the $60. At this point I'm actually slightly worried, because in spite of his drunkenness and stupidity, he would fold if he didn't have anything. I err on the side of caution and check down the 3 river, flip my kings, he shows me a Q, then forgets his other card and flips it up in the center of the table. 3. Oh. Nice. Well played. I would've been more pissed about the slowroll if I actually thought it was intentional, but I'm pretty sure he legitimately forgot his other card and was surprised when it gave him two pair. Still. I slap another $100 on the table and get ready for more.

A few hands later I'm in MP with T9s, a few limps, I limp it, flop T93, and the part of my brain that likes money does a little dance because I'm in it with slovakian man who's gotten a nice stack of almost $400 playing fast and loose. Limper leads out for $10, I smooth call because I'm tricksy, just slovakian in BB calls. Turn is a K, limper bets $15, and I botch. Big time. God damn drinking. When I stacked up I got two $25 chips and a bunch of $5s. In a veritable orgy of brilliance, I put the nice dark colored 25s in the bottom of a stack of fives so I can't tell the fregging difference in the colors. I go to make a raise to "$45," which is what I wanted, though I didn't announce it, three stacks of five of the $5 chips. It looked all nice and pretty until the dealer calls out $85, and my heart sinks. The friendly old man in seat 1 blurts out "EIGHTY FIVE?!!?!" incredulously, and we all have a good laugh. From here on out, he calls me Mr. 85. I'm bummed because I think I just lost a shitload of value, or I'm getting f*cked if someone has QJ. Slovakian starts counting out some chips, and I try desperately to hide my discomfort. He calls. He f*cking CALLS $100 cold. Out of position. Nice. So he's got QJ then. f*ck. Other guy folds, and the river comes out a J. Are you shitting me, now even if he didn't, he can't NOT have a queen, or at least have third and fourth pair beat. He bets $80 or so after thinking for about 20 seconds, and I'm almost in physical pain at the stupidity of this hand. Like I said before, he never really showed down a crappy hand, but he'd done bets and shit like this a lot so he didn't show down a fair amount of his hands. I know he's loose, I know he's aggressive and plays weird, but he's not stupid. He probably understands I'm checking behind a ton of my hands with that river, so he wants some value, so either he's pulling a hell of a bluff knowing that information and using the fact that I actually have a clue against me, or he's trying to get a little more value out of me knowing he can't pull a checkraise or anything. I tank for about a minute, groaning and cringing and moaning, he's watching tv and looking rather comfortable doing it, so I fold. I reach for my wallet to pull out another hundo and look up to see Ad9d on the table. Wow. Nice hand sir. That f*cking river, and he f*cking knew it. I asked him what he would've done on another river card, he just kind of shrugged. Oh well. I took it fine, reloaded, kept plugging away. Surprised it didn't affect me actually. Mebbe it was the alcohol.

He left a few orbits later, sadly, but we had some new faces, including the guy who busted me from the first tournament in seat 9. He's fairly solid, but his betsizing was awful, making it easy to suck out on him, kekeke. Drunky ends up busting which is too bad, but then he comes back for more. Noice! I nickel and dime a bit, flop top pair and get some value, back up to about $250 or so, check my option in the BB with 93o after a few limpers. Flop is 899, OMGTRIPS SLOWPLAY, so I check/call, just me and one other guy to the turn, I check/raise to about $70 or so since the pot is a decent size at this point, he calls leaving himself $3 behind. Yea, this was the seat 5 guy who stinks. Not that I needed it but the river was another 9, I put him in and he flips KK. Hoohaw. That was actually a fairly sizeable pot, almost $200. Back on track a bit, noice. Still nickel and diming a bit, not much more action, a few limps, nothing spectacular. Drunky keeps splashing around, I bluff the nice old guy on an all hearts board with Ad8d because he talked too much during the hand, basically telling me he had a good pocket pair with a heart, drunky finally busts. I go to the bathroom quickly, only two stalls, one is taken so I pop into the other one. I hear someone burst into the bathroom and check the other stall, then frantically come to mine and jiggle the handle, then BLARRARAHAHGHGHAHAHAHGHGHHGH. Right into the sink. Puking himself silly. Guess who it is. Drunky! Huzzah! So I just kind of shuffle out, it smelled pretty funky because it was all rum and coke, but when you work with kids on a cruise ship, you see puke on an almost daily basis, so I'm completely unphased by it. I sit back down chuckling, play for another 20 minutes or so when who do I see sit back down. You guessed it. The same f*cking drunk guy! But this time he's got a fresh $200 instead of just $100, and I lick my chops. Unfortunately I get no hands of note against him, and it's getting pretty late and this is the last night I'm going to see my lady until at least August, so yknow. Last round, I call out to my end of the table who I've become quite friendly and chatty with since we're the end that has a clue.

As I mentioned before, I got the guy who busted me out of the first tournament back a bit, though the hand isn't that exciting except that I sucked out, hoohaw. In MP with J8s, and it being my last rotation I want to play some hands, so I make it $10, he calls on the button, and we're heads up. Flop is J high, I bet $15, he raises $20 more which is funky and I've seen him do with all manner of hands. There's a flush draw out there, so I say feck it and raise it $75 more, putting him in. He tanks for about 2 minutes, and the longer he tanks the longer I think I'm beat and he's debating with a better jack, heh. Finally he reluctantly puts the chips in, and I river an 8 for justice. I tell him he had me but I paired up and table my cards, and his head snaps back in disgust. Whatever man, I just took you for $100, with my chips you got yourself $850. With a few hands left the cute asian girl sits down again, and I discover that the guy I just sucked out on is getting married to her. Well done, sir. In a few hands she's already made like $100 bucks playing a set really nicely and getting a shorty all in, then pulling a solid bluff. Lucky guy. I cash out for $527, wish everyone well, drunky stumbles over and shakes my hand, and I go to find the lady. That was a struggle in itself and I actually ran into the crew area (illegal!) to knock on her door, which ironically was where I used to live when I worked there. Finally found her, we have an excellent last night, my flight is delayed an hour getting home, but I still play some sngs when I get back and do some winning.

If you stuck with it this far, I congratulate you. SNGs are going stupendously, as my 40% ROI on Sharkscope indicates, though I discovered this morning that it doesn't seem to record all the sngs. I had 61 going into last night, played 4, and it has me at 62 now. Curious. In any event, sustainable. Like, seriously. Not 40, but a damn good ROI. One simple change really. Raise more, push less. Before I'd get a nice chiplead and just pushpushpushpush which means I need to be running decent in all ins to do well. Now raise/folding I can still take all those blinds and make my stack hugeified, but I'm not doubling people up left and right with trash. Totally obvious thing I somehow seemed to have missed this whole time, but really I've had some sngs where I'm never even all in until it's HU, outside of a nice double up early on or something. It's way way better, and people keep folding. Oh man. Do they ever. Slowly creeping back to where I should be, and building loads more confidence along the way. Noice. Alright. I think that's about it for now. Phew. Good work reader.