New Year!

Hello and happy new year!

I'll admit that I have neglected my blog for the past couple of months. The last time I made a post was halfway through November (two months ago) and it wasn't even poker-related. The truth is that I haven't been playing much poker lately, so I didn't really have a lot to write about...

What have I been busy with? Well, after our trip to the Isle of Man, I got back to the grind. Unfortunately, I only managed to play two or three days before I got sick. You see, I have this master plan of catching every seasonal cold that's out there. As a result, I had to spend almost a week in bed with fever and even when the fever went away, my head still didn't feel clear enough to process poker.

When I was feeling alright again I had already lost ten days of work and had to leave for Greece, a trip that I had planned since September. I stayed in Greece until early December, spending some time with my family and friends. 

I came back to Portugal just in time for André's challenge frenzy. With less than a month left to finish the challenge, and around $60k in his account it was very interesting to watch the progress closely and see if he could make it. He finished the year with slightly less than $70k which is huge, but what is more interesting is how close it was to the $100k. I know that $30k sounds like a lot of money (and it really is), but in reality it was only a couple of poker tables away. Take for example the WCOOP Challenge Main Event: he finished at 29th place when he needed 8th or better to finish the challenge right then and there! What he did wasn't easy at all, but still he dedicated a full year of his life to it and he is donating all the money to a good cause. Not to mention, he proved that you can go very far with just $100! So regardless of the outcome I'm very, VERY proud of him!

But I'm deviating from my point. Which is, that during December I found the challenge so interesting that I caught myself staying up late in front of the computer following André's tables most often than not. And of course, if you go to sleep at 3, 4, 5 o'clock in the morning then you are guaranteed to not wake up at 9.00 a.m. to play poker. So I didn't end up playing much in December either. It became clear to me however, that André and I need to have more or less the same schedule. It's very difficult to be living in the same house with someone that wakes up when you go to sleep and vice versa. 

Towards the end of the month it was nearly impossible to get any work done... We went out of town to spend Christmas with André's family and then they came over for New Year's eve. And before I realized it... Pouf! 2013 was gone!

This year I'm going to try to keep my posts smaller and post more often. Come back soon for an update!