Filler

I haven't done a real update in a long time. A lot of new stuff is happening with school and poker that is keeping me insane busy.

I have decided to go for super nova. For one to get this, they need to get 100k vpps in the one year period. I have 40k more. It might not be a huge amount for some people but that is going to be the hardest grind I have ever done for a a month. With that being said, there is no way I am going to grind 8k more 16/18s so I have moved up to donking at the 60s and even some 114s whenever they decide to fire and look soft enough. I am in for some nasty days of locking myself in room over break and getting 300-400 sngs out in a day.

School is pretty insane right now. I have a Music history test, clarinet test, and french horn test tomorrow. Not only that but I have to play in studio class which i'm simply not ready for. I think was supposed to sign up for classes yesterday but had so many other things to do I forgot, I hope I don't get stuck with another lame schedule. I changed my course plan a bit, i'll still be getting my degree but no teacher certification. It's really what I think is best for me as I have no desire to teach a classroom full of kids. I'll be much happier teaching privately, doing my own business, and playing poker.

Thank you guys again for helping my friend Amy out (read last post). It got such a great response I am going to be setting something like that up on a regular basis. It is going to be a group of poker players that pledge a % of monthly winnings that will go to people who make the world better. When they get back from doing whatever they do, trip report and pics will be provided. I'd like to expand more on my idea but I simply don't have the time right now. This whole idea will be really good for the image and the poker community in general, I can foresee it getting really big. I have a few guys that have agreed to help out, let me know if you are interested.



October stats ^

It was a pretty weird month, but finally came together at the end. Coaching and staking went well so I have nothing to complain about.



-Reasons

So if you want to do something fulfilling today...

BINK- Didn't take more then 2 hours. I'll do a bigger write up later but thanks you so much. If anyone sends more i'll just take it out of the $200 that I initially pledged and give Amy the extra.

"Thank her for being a better person than me and doing some good in the world. Also ask her to pray for me to run good wednesday because I need to win this prop bet yo!"

-lol ratsauce89

"ill send 20 to you on stars, so long as I have some reassurance that she believes poker is a skill game"

-paradicecity

Screen names below are players from pokerstars.

Reasons14- $100

Draqq -$100

Brbbbq on ftp- $50

Prom Queens- $50

rat sauce 89- $41.71

Mattgeer (ftp)- $30

Hannah Zwieb (personal friend)- $30

Whoopsy_dazy - $30

Wbmustang- $30

bagonirix - $30

manhat10_ite - $30

Qeloton7- $30

Yodaddy379 -$30

giRL90ihqdaa - $22.22

paradicecity- $20

Gavin555- 20$

Peachesforme - $20

Jbrown8777 -$20

7curse- 17.77

CMSmith - $13.27

Binkdd- $10.18

"Hi Reasons,

I don't think we've ever formally chatted, but I recognize you from grinding the 18s and recently started chatting with one of your students (CastleBravo).

Anyways, I saw your post on your blog about your friend and it sounds like a great cause. I have a full-time job and have just recently started grinding sit n gos as a hobby to make some supplemental income. I had my best month ever and definitely have the roll to help your friend out. If you PM me how much she needs (you said in your blog around $300?), I can send it to you tonight (but may be late bc I'm on west coast time).

In the grand scheme of things, $300 is pretty easy for me to cover and I've ran like God in October anyways, so its probably right for me to donate some of it to a good cause.

Just let me know how much she needs and I will ship to you on PS tonight.

cheers,
Greg"

-Some guy willing to help and I don't even know him, just seen him at the tables.



Hey guys, I really need yalls help on this one so i'm just going to throw out a few ideas.

I have a good friend Amy who is going to El Salvador to do some missions work and she has had some trouble raising money. She is going there to effectively train other counselors and have a positive effect on the youth; the trip is ten days long. It is completely non profit for her and she is doing it out of the goodness of her heart. She is 500$ short for the whole trip and the deadline was pretty much yesterday thought they will make it work if she gets the money in by the next day or two.

So far I said I was going to give her $200 so now she just needs $300 more. It's really not that much in our eyes but its great amount for her. I would try and cover the rest already but rent is due and that would kill my checking account.

I mean if ten people were to just give $30 (pretty much like 1 buy in for you poker players) that would cover everything. She is literally one of the sweetest girls I know and I really want to help her out.

Obviously if I had planned this out ahead of time I would get a benefit tournie together that we can all play and give a % to her (kevstreet style etc) but am just out of time.

A lot of you blog or talk about how poker is really unfulfilling (I agree) and want to do other things with it. She is doing work for the betterment of the world at her own cost. I can't really speak for you all because I don't know everyone here but that is certainly more then I have ever done.

If you do just want to donate, ship to reasons14 on stars and message me on facebook with your real name and sn on stars so I know who you are and that she can message you (thank you letter etc). My name is Benjamin Reason on FB and you can search me using my email- [email]Reasons14@netscape.net[/email]. Profile pic you see is me in some car chunkin up deuces. If you would rather ship her your own check PM me for an address. The smoothest would just be via stars or ftp trans though.

Really the best thing that has come to my head is I can offer coaching for a higher price and donate that to her. My hourly for coaching has been 50-60$ and that usually includes an HH review. I'm sure I could provide some insight to your 18 man game if you wanted it. So yeah, i'll offer one hour of coaching with a seperate hh review as a follow up for 100$. You could even just get it for a friend maybe.

All of my long term students have crushed.... so obv you are getting good value




If you have any questions for her just ask in here and i'll relay them to her. My contact info if you need me is reasons14 on aim and benjamin.reason on skype.


Cliff notes: help my caring friend out and you'll prob run a bit better then if you shipped kidpoker .02. Barryg doesn't run to bad either. Thanks for the time,

-Reasons

Consolation of Philosophy

I guess I can start things off here on a good note. Poker wise, I had my best day ever today. I think I killed everything I touched, though it was mostly 18s. I was able to book a 1st in a 27/45, 4th in a 180 and did well in 38s. I usually don't write about things of this sort on here because it's all pretty standard and no one cares, but i'm proud of my day. I was really hesitant about playing because of the way the month had been going. Had a few times where I doubted my game a long the way but I think I have everything pulled together for the most part. My sample in the 27s and 38s is looking pretty good and i'll hopefully be giving some looks at the softer 60s next month. I really need to get used to the variance a bit better because it still pisses me off a bit more then it should whenever I get sucked out on in a 38. I think the skill aspect of my game is up to par for the 60s but the psychological part isn't.

I made a pretty big purchase (big for a college student ok?) last week and am pretty satisfied with it. Sort of weird considering I don't really watch TV at all but it is a nice addition to my apartment. Me and my roommate went to best buy last weekend so I could pick out a TV and some speakers. As is the case with most things, I ended up spending more then I wanted to but w/e. I got a 42inch samsung plasma and a 500 watt surround sound system. This is a pretty crappy pic but it'l do for now.



The wires definitely need some cleaning up but other then that, I am very pleased. I think I sat and listened to music through it for 3 hours the other night. I put on some Bjork and it was just sick hearing the different voices coming through different speakers. That combined with a visualizer was pretty awesome.

So yeah, Halloween time. Me and my roommate decided to through a party this time around. Our last few have gotten a really good response and my friends thought it would be good to have a smaller one. I was kind of meh on the idea at first because I figured everyone would just go lame frat parties but I think we are expecting ~40 people which is a lot of our apartment. We have a ton of black lights set up and a fog machine so it's going to be sick. One of my friends even found some glow in the dark spider web stuff that we are going to put up. I guess i'm going to be an indian this year or whatever. We got come UN sensitive paint/makeup stuff and i'm going to have one of my friends just paint my body, going to be whack.

I have been doing that whole swim in a pool of mediocrity thing concerning my academics right now. I had some speech do last week that I got a zero on. I promise you I am the smartest person in that class I am now trying to pass it. My teacher decided to start in the middle of the list or something, which she has never done. Obv I was first to go and straight up didn't have anything. Really annoying. Since it can be related to my fault I didn't make a big deal about it at all. I just have to do good on everything else which shouldn't be to hard. I just know my parents aren't going to be to pleased because they wanted me to get A's and B's this semester. Getting a C in that class is pretty borderline retarded.

Started to write this and didn't finish. I do that a lot.

-Reasons

Pace Is The Trick

I am having such a hard time finding an equilibrium between school, life, and everything else right now. No one can really tell when they are around me, but I
passively freak out about everything.

I had a music history quiz due online by tomorrow afternoon. We are going over early music around the 700-1100's and figuring out the origins of it really. The quiz has a lot of listening on it to identify what is what. When I open the quiz, the music examples all start playing at the same time and won't stop. I probably completely bombed the quiz. It's going to be pretty humorous when I bring my laptop to class tomorrow for the teacher and it works perfectly fine.

Our concert was pretty awesome, I felt I played really well and my violin professor even commented on how it really seemed that I was leading a lot. Being on the front stand has definitely pressured me to practice more as more responsibilities are thrown on my shoulders. It's taken a toll on my other practice time for my solo stuff and I haven't really figured out where to fit everything in. Maybe i'll take a break from poker for a few days to get everything in order.

The next concert we are going to be going on tour with is going to be sick.



Anyone who can should definitely come back it out for this.

I've hardly practiced my violin since that girl knocked and my door and bitched me out. I usually always practice at night because that's when I feel it the most. Now, I would have to go to the music building which doors shut at 11 to go practice; simply not going to happen before that. Right now I have 3 symphony pieces, a quartet, arpeggios, and the rest of my solo to learn. I really need to condition my body better to practice a few hours a day if I want to do an adequate job at it all.

Another positive outlet is needed in my life right now. For any of you that read other poker blogs probably know why. I think a good 90% of the blogs I read have depression smeared completely over them. Though it's great money, it's so unfulfilling. I am looking for some sort of soup kitchen to maybe work at 1x a week or something. When I worked at Jason's Deli, though I had to deal with morons on a daily basis, It was nice being able to converse with people about rando stuff. Being involved so deeply with poker dormants your social so much it's absurd.

I need to start making it a point to eat healthy again. There has been a few in the past weeks where I have had a single slice of bread for a meal. I really think the only option is to only get things 100% healthy. Reason being, any thing I buy that is around becomes that meal. If chips are the only thing left in the house, that is what dinner is. Disgusting.



I need this weekend already. It's my friend Mike's 21st birthday and I said he can have his party at my place. I bought him 7 shots today at his birthday dinner. I told the waiter to mix, gin, tequila, and jeagermeister in one glass and give it to him. Also got him something called the turd burglar in which the waiter wasn't even sure what was in it; good times. I'm hoping for some jazz with a friend Saturday evening as well.



Pic of the watch I am highly considering getting. Thoughts?

Sleep then up in 4.5 hour so bust out some flute, music history, then conducting. I need better habits.


-Benjamin

Paper Thin Walls

Whenever I have been practicing, it's been early in the AM and I finally got a knock last night. To be honest i'm surprised it took that long. Apparently it had been pissing her off for a while and when I opened the door she was like "OK ME AND YOU NEED TO HAVE A TALK!" She started complaining about the while situation and say something about that "damn video game I always play". Obviously it had to be the pokerstars beeps and bloops as I don't play any vid games. I think she was sort of surprised how chill I was about everything. I just sort of agreed with what she said and apologized saying that if it every happens again let me know and it'l be a quick fix. In any case, I really need to practice for my lesson the next and that wasn't going to happen. I ended up going to 4am and waking up at 8am which sadly seems to be the norm a lot of weeknights. In my previous post I mentioned something about me being sick. I am finally over it now even though it took to long. I really don't want a relapse.

Poker wise, September was an awesome month. Even though I didn't get a ton of volume in, the stats came through and coaching + staking went fantastic. I really enjoy being a part if grinderschool.



Have more to talk about but I have a 3 hour rehearsal tonight for our first massive concert on Saturday.



-Reasons

Hard to Beat

"If you train hard, you'll not only be hard, you'll be hard to beat."

-Herschel Walker

Had no idea who that guy was until I googled "hard work quotes", and that was the one I liked the best. Just some rando football player from back in the day, though it seems he did something right. Hard work is just about the only thing that has been going on in my life as of late. My poker grind has been probably reduced to about 2/5ths what it was in the summer. I really wish I grinded harder then to make up for now. School is pretty intense so I just haven't had the time to anything else but study anything and everything music. Sleep is so very seldom during my school week. I feel like I have a sleeping disorder. I really don't understand how is that I am going to 3am every single night and getting up 6:30 for my 8am woodwinds. I think it finally caught up with me though as I am constantly blowing my nose and sipping hot tea to nurse my cold as I write this.

Poker is fantastic. My enjoyment of them game and its capabilities reached a new level when I moved out. Yeah it is easy to say that since I have been running decent as of late but i'm now realizing what I can do with it. There is just so many more perks when living in apartment rather then a dorm, much less home. I think my apartment is the nicest guy's apartment I have been in though. And yes, that is a slight brag. I'm getting on this kick though, and it might be a bad habit, but i'm really just obsessing on ways to make my apartment ballin for some reason. I've been looking at some 42 inch TV's and some nice sound systems to add to the place in the next month or two. I can't imagine being that college nit who can't go out to eat one night because he can't afford the gas money or something. Yeah that might sound a nit arrogant to all the non poker players reading this, but really i'm just venting/expressing to all those who do play.

Grinderschool/coaching has been going great. All the students and coaches on the site are pretty enjoyable to work with. I really just have an insane passion for teaching. I am starting to feel better about going into some from of education as I was rather apathetic toward it at first. Coaching hasn't really interfered with my school work yet as I have been pretty good about staying organized. I even bought some dry erase board calender to keep track of everything now. I haven't really got to play much this month because of my other obligations. But the games that I have played, have been pretty good. I feel like my 18 man game has reached a new level and can only keep improving. I have this confidence that I can beat the 38s and 60s right now and am most definitely looking forward to giving them a go. Barring some horrific run, i'll be there by November.

While it appears I am on this euphoric motivation whim, it simply just leaves me sometimes. I listen to my teachers and literally get excited about working on assignments that they give. A few hours later, you might just find me staring at the itunes visualizer for hours on end rather then doing poker or schoolwork. That sounds crazy, but it's happened. In a pure logical sense, the reasons just don't add up that cause me to do things like that. I've been searching for the cause some time now so if anyone has any advice to offer, feel free. I just hate doing work at times.

Ending my mindless ramble for the night

Other then poker and music, I freeking love soccer. I remember this song playing my Sr year before playoffs. The chorus is pretty much poker all the way.



This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill
Fifteen percent concentrated power of will
Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain
And a hundred percent reason to remember the name.


-Reasons

Upperclass

I'm a Junior this year, and I feel old. Though I a am almost 21, I think I would rather be 18...regardless of all the new stuff you can do (not even really that much). I'm in an apartment now and I feel somewhat obligated not to slack off like I have the past few years. Right now I have more of a mindset to get all A's in all of my classes rather then being content with C's. I really have the capability to get whatever great I want, I just need the motivation. Anyways, here is some shots of my new place taken by my phone, so excuse the poor quality.

First one is sort of by the TV where everything is connected. I still need to get all those wires cleaned up...


Couch in the living room area. Both of these paintings are done by my awesome friend, Denice.


Got an L-shaped desk so now I can run laptop and desktop at the same time. I love it.


Getting out of my room in my house is so nice, there is clutter built up since I was ~5 years old I'd say.

I guess i'll keep posting pictures. Just realized I didn't do a month summary yet. Given that I was gone for 2 weeks and I had to finish up an online class, I hardly got any volume in. However, for the few games I did play it went very well.





First one is Full Tilt and Bottom one is Poker Stars. With playing and coaching/staking/bonuses/prop bets I had a 4K+ month. Feels good going into school having to pay for books and supplies.







Pics above are from my Cali trip.

Anyways, some other great new stuff has been going on. I got a lead spot as a SNG instructor at Grinderschool.com. It's still pretty small site but they are growing fairly quickly and I feel like I have a lot to add. I have already worked with a few of the members and it seems to be going well. I had a podcast interview with them which was pretty hilarious. Just sign up for a free account and you can listen to it here

Also, I "graduated" from the sngmentors program that I was doing for a good while and am now available to coach through there as well. It's a coaching/staking site so if you are interested just give me a holler. We have a very sick team.

First week of class has gone well so far, I am really enjoying everything that I decided to take. The teachers really seem to take an interest in the students learning which is awesome. I think I am starting to appreciate that a little more as my teaching experience in poker grows. As of right now I am taking 15 hours but that can potentially shoot up to 19 if I add everything in that needs to be done.

Sorry this post was so monotonous, I'll try and add more content later. Good luck in September,

-Reasons