June and July are pretty busy for me, but somehow I found time to whittle a $250 stake in Empire down to $50.  Still, it's all profit since I cashed out for $75 already from my $50 buy-in plus the $25 bonus.  And forget that crap about "Playing with house money"... if I had a chance to get a check and passed it up, it should be MY money.
 
I've studied my play and some of the histories (mostly SnG's), and learned some pretty basic things about the way I play.  I'm way too passive (some might call it 'trap-happy') when I have good hands, and I'm way too tight with borderline or drawing hands.  Rather than trying to win money or chips, I'm trying to be impressive with slowplays and good folds.  I've gotta focus on the goal, which is to win money, not admirers.  When I have the best hand early, I need to ram and jam and either get the draws out or make them pay terrible odds for their draw.  When I have a draw, I need to sometimes lead out to pre-empt the raisers and get better pot odds.
 
When I was building up my stake, I was pretty much playing the bully in SnG's, trying to double up early on a calling station on a draw, and then dropping into a pattern of stealing blinds with borderline hands (especially against shorter stacks).  It's fun to raise just enough to make someone have to go all-in, knowing that he doesn't want to risk his SnG tournament life on a borderline hand.  Of course, you'll always run into bad beats doing this, and the last two weeks have been rife with examples of me having the best hand (and odds) after the turn only to get cracked by 10-20% chances that had no mathematical basis for calling the turn.  Yeah, I know in the long run I'll come out ahead, but the pendulum seems to have firmly locked in the upright position favoring the fishes for now....
 
Got back with a second-place NLHE $10 SnG last night.  Played pretty well and had a 5-3 lead when it got to the final pair.  Lost the lead with a QT flush against a A2 flush, and eventually ended up all-in with A-rag and lost to pocket pairs when an ace never appeared.  Hopefully, I can take some momentum from the positive result and build MY stake back up.  Also, there are rumblings around the neighborhood about a possible poker game for the dads now that the moms have started a Bunco group....  I've already volunteered to host the SECOND game.  I think the second game is most important since ONE game is an event, TWO games is a series.  I don't even know if anyone ever reads this, but I'll keep posting when/if the game starts.