Getting Back Into Poker
I’m kind of disappointed that it’s been over two weeks since I posted an entry. Since I last wrote, I moved into a new townhouse and spent ten days in New York. I’ve been pretty busy in light of those two things and kind of let blogging slip off my radar.
I haven’t played much poker in the past few months. I’ve kind of put it to the side for a few other things, mostly just going out and being social and not staying inside to multi-table all evening, but the pendulum has swung back the other way. For a few nights in a row now, I’ve had the option to go out and do something social or stay inside and play tournaments. For the first time in a while, staying in to play tournaments sounded more fun.
As almost always seems to be the case after extended periods of minimal play, I feel fantastic about how I’m playing. I know I’ve talked about this before, but I really feel like I’m at my best when I come back from a break. I would imagine many poker players feel this way. I feel like when you play all the time you kind of slip into a routine where your thoughts aren’t as engaged with regards to poker. You reach a point where you’re just going through the motions more than you should. I feel like I’m analyzing every decision really well right now. I played the mini-FTOPS Razz event the other night and the PLO rebuy today and cashed in both. Despite limited experience in both of those variants, I think tournaments such as the mini-FTOPS events are very beatable if you’re focusing and thinking at a high level even if you’re not well-versed in that particular variant.
In the PLO event, I was chipleader with around 200 players left. Unfortunately that doesn’t mean much in PLO, a game where gold can turn to dust in a hurry, which is exactly what happened when I got a flush all-in against two-pair on the turn for an absolutely huge pot that unfortunately did not hold up.
Poker is alive and well though. Anytime I have an extended break from the tables, I always worry that when I come back I’m going to find the games have dried up and are full of regs. Today’s 4,600 player $10 rebuy PLO event was nice reassurance that these worries can be set aside. I guess I’m not too unlike a lot of players who feel like they’re waiting for the other shoe to drop in terms of poker being a fun and profitable venture. I keep thinking that any day now everyone will get really good and I’ll go from feeling like a strong player to an average one as a result. But I’ve been waiting for a while now and it doesn’t seem to be happening. I saw the Sunday Million got like 35,000 players or something ridiculous a couple weeks ago. Poker is alive and well!
I want to make poker one of my primary focuses in life again from now until the WSOP. I’m hoping to live in Vegas this summer, which is something I’ve actually never done despite having gone out there for five summers in a row, and take a significant shot at a huge payday. I mean, why not? I’m young, have fairly few responsibilities, the games are really good, and I’m really hungry to succeed in that arena. Who knows how many more years all of those things will be the case? I might as well try to capitalize on it while I can.
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While I did not read your whole post on the poker stuff, I wanted to submit a request through posting a comment:
Will you write a post about your opinions on the recent health care reform bill and its passing? I think it would be an interesting read.
Haha I know/understand the bill so little/poorly that I really couldn’t make any educated statements about it. I liked what my friend Jason had to say though: http://allthingsjasonday.blogspot.com/2010/03/before-you-even-begin-reading-this-make.html