Fun (not) :: 6 days till big showdown

Hey hey. Few hours ago I made last changes to my master thesis. Final version is a 126 pages long beast called "Software process assessment and improvement". Next Monday I'm having presentation at National Exam Commission, where in 15min timeframe I'll have to convince a group of PhDs that this thesis is somewhat original, somewhat inovative, something worth to give master degree for.

Having written this wall-of-china-of-text during the last 6 weeks it is hard to stop all of the sudden, so step by step I'm going to recap on things that happened since New Year and update this dying blog in retrospect.

So if anyone wants to wish me luck for next Monday, feel free to do so, you know how to pm me ;) It wont go unnoticed at the great boozeing that will follow if I pass :)

Poker :: Ding! GoldStar

Recently there was 10billion hand anniversary at PokerStars, so I took opportunity on their 25% deposit bonus to take another shot. Things went well this time. In several days time I got enough FPPs for the GoldStar VIP status, which I achieved for the first time (I was twice SilverStar VIP before). Now I need to keep this status for two more months for the deluxe poker chip set to boost our home game quality :)

As the game itself, I feel I'm playing quite good at the moment. I made it back to green for the $50 tables, moved up to $100, and am crushing them for 15BB/100hands since. It may be a temporary rush, but I'm already 30% through to be bankrolled enough for the $200 tables. My goal is to hit $10k of the bankroll and play NL$400 before any cashouts. I feel NL2/4 won't be THAT much tougher.

One interesting hand from my last session. Would you make a laydown here?

PREFLOP
- EP (stack $85) raise $4 (read - very solid & tough player)
- me (MP; stack $100) call with 88
- LP (stack $100) call
- everyone else folds; pot $13,5
FLOP - J 8 4 rainbow
- EP check
- me bet $7 (pot $20,5)
- LP call
- EP minraise to $14 (pot $41,5)
- me call
- LP minreraise to $21 (pot $62,5)
- EP push allin (pot $129,5)
- me ???

Reminder: my read for EP is very solid; LP player I don't know.

Sports :: May the force be with you

Alright boys and girls, today it was first day this season when I actually felt like running. It was minor city evening league event (takes place every Tuesday and Thursday), 8.5km course, runability was very good in most parts, ~100m of climb, and I finshed it @ 5:22/km pace. I placed third for the first time this season in the elite group, which is not smth to brag about, since most sportsmen dont take these events seriously at all, but still, I made only one 40sec error towards the end of the course in a dense vegetation area, and apart of that it was just very fluent race.

Also, its 2+ months when I'm training regularly, and my body starts to adapt a little already. Heart beat after good nights sleep is 42-45 bpm, 1hour after exercise it drops to 60bpm, and during easy training it doesnt rise above 150bpm anymore. At the moment my usual week consists of 4-5 training sessions with 0:50-1:10 of running each.