Hello.  Long time no talk.  My bad.  I haven’t really been feeling up to writing lately, but for some reason in this gloomy twilight over lovely Chester, Pennsylvania, I do.  Hi

A lot of shit has happened between then and now.  I cashed in the Red Rock $1k.  I won the Caesars WSOP-C $1k for $55k and my 2nd ring, beating Eskimo Clark heads-up.  Two weeks later I chopped the Venetian $1k in entertaining style.  I battled back from stuck a bit to barely stuck when we went to the mattresses and got all the loot in pre-flop, my JJ v his AQo.  I said, chop the money?  He said sure, winner of the flip wins?  Yup.  I lost the flip and went home with $20k.  With a 5th place and a win in $1k’s at the Bellagio Five Diamond and a 3rd at the Venetian’s $1k in November, I put together a sick little heater in $1k’s this winter.

I started looking for houses time and was pretty happy to take all those donkament dollars and turn them into one.  I went to the Commerce for LAPC in February and made money mostly thanks to Ryan Tepen winning the $100r for fifty dimes.  Closed escrow on a house, an awesome place in an ideal neighborhood for $95,500.

All this awesome has been tainted though by the end of my engagement to Cory.  We entered our relationship committed to the idea that for a relationship to be successful, both people must be happy by themselves first.  Then, if they’re the right fit, they will be happier together.  If they’re less happy together than apart, then something’s obviously broken.  We’ve riddled each other with misery enough that I had to pull the plug.  It bums me out terribly, but it bummed me out way more to be consistently at odds with the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

That’s the whole point of dating and time though, right?  Don’t get married unless you’re 100% sure.  I did that once, and it was a big fucking mistake.  Why rush into something like that?  If you’re no good now, but think things can be worked out, then cool, let’s push it back a bit to make sure.  If we’re no good period, then hooray for us for being wise about life and not rushing into something that was wrong.  So, while I’m bummed that it didn’t work out, I’m happy that we figured this out now.  I’m stoked to not have a source of unhappiness in my life any longer.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned about my relationship functionality being broken.  They’ve all ended in failure thus far.  Or the fact that I’m now thirty years old and do want a family.  But I keep reminding myself that there really aren’t many examples of successful relationships out there.  It’s gotta be something like 99%+ of all relationships eventually end, yet we all continue this pursuit.  What’s broken where?  I have no idea, but I really don’t understand why people get so bent out of shape over break-ups, or when somebody doesn’t like you back.  It’s not that big of a deal.  If it’s not working now, for whatever reason you can come up with, what makes you think it’s going to work later?  And why would you want to continue to pursue something that’s broken?

Perhaps I’ll be single for the rest of my life, but I’d rather do that than be less happy in a relationship.  Perhaps my paradigm will shift as I age, but I have a feeling that I’ll still be able to make friends at fifty.  Perhaps I won’t start my family until 50, but really, what’s wrong with that?  Certainly not optimal, not what I would prefer, but it has to be boatloads better than having kids with somebody who you shouldn’t have married in the first place.  Insert divorce here, broken lives, et cetera.  So again, I find myself wondering why I should be bummed about this?  I dodged a bullet.

Gavin Smith ran into Eskimo outside the restroom at the Wynn in March.  Hey, Eskimo, I heard that you took 2nd in a $1k recently.  Congrats.  ”Thanks, we chopped it.”  Eskimo?!  NO you DiDn’T!? “Yeah, yeah, we chopped it.”  Fine.  I bet that you didn’t chop it.  I still haven’t figured out why he would try and run that bluff.

With those 50 points I picked up in January, I did some math and decided that I needed to pursue points for the WSOP-C National Championship.  Myself and some other smart people came up with 90 as a target number but thought we’d probably be good with 80.  I headed to San Diego/Harrah’s Rincon to chase some points, booking an 11th and a 3rd for 40 points.  I celebrated cause I made it, and went to Vegas to remodel my house and move in.

I spent the end of March through last week doing just that.  A buddy of mine owes me $ and is a skilled craftsman.  He’s doing the work for me and I’m calling our debt square.  I’ve been busting my ass too, but there’s only so much I can do that I know how to do.  He’s taught me a ton this month and it’s been a pleasure watching him create the art that is my hardwood floor.  He’s very talented at wood floors and if I tried to pull it off, I wouldn’t have, and would have ended up paying somebody to do it.

Somewhere around when I started getting re-connected to the grid in April I heard that 90 points might not do it.  And then a couple weeks ago, 90 points was the cutoff, with twenty some-odd events to go.  Rats.  I very reluctantly purchased a ticket to Philladelphia to pursue points.  I’ve played four tournaments thus far, never doing anything in any of them, have lost money playing cash games, won money on neutral ev gambling (Wanna flip a coin for $500?  Sure.  Ship.  Double or nothing?  Sure.  Ship.), and have spent money on beer and ice hockey.  It’s been a fun trip thus far, greatly exceeding my expectations, I’m just hoping that I can come up with 20 points in the next 6 events so I don’t have to go to New Orleans.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

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