All Things Poker

I knew before I went back to the casino that I was going to have to rethink what I was doing. My father, who passed away two years ago, used to say something to me as a child that I thought was inappropriate (and still do), but sometimes it can be a motivating mental picture. Now father of the year award material this isn’t, but sometimes I still see him standing there, with an angry expression, looking down on me, yelling at me to get my head out of my ass. Parent / child relationships are weird. I have always been upset with him for that tendency of his, but it is what I “run home to” when as an adult I need to get past something. I tell myself to get my head out of my ass, a mental picture of my father shows up, I concede that he is right, and I look for a way to move on.

So my search for head-ass-removal brought me to the idea that I needed a place to vent. Somewhere to express what was going on in my head to an audience (real or imagined) that would understand what I was talking about. It also had to be a place that I could revisit to gauge where I had been and therefor where I was going. Hence the idea for this blog was born. So before sitting down for this Monday session, I spent my late Sunday night putting together and formatting this site. I even wrote the first post and although no real session information was conveyed, just knowing that my place to vent was ready for me allowed me to get my head out of my ass, and back into the game. So onto the session…

I made a firm commitment to myself that I  would start playing methodically when I next sat down for a variety of reasons. Step one of my “methodical makeover” would be looking to the player on my left, and forming a decision about his action prior to looking at my cards and making a decision for myself. I have to admit, I couldn’t have picked a better time (or a better person to my left) to start that methodology. I sat down at a table where the three players just to my left were all friends, at the casino together, two of which it appeared had hardly ever set foot in a casino before. The player to my immediate left consistently telegraphed every call, fold, or raise with plenty of time for me to examine my own cards and position. The player to my immediate right had never been at a casino before by his own admission, and it was obvious he wasn’t bluffing about that. He was greener than grass. I was back to being confident, and in control. I had decent reads on most people at the table and I had enough winning hands at showdown that I was able to pickup uncontested pots with little difficulty. My largest pot came when everyone limped to my big blind. I flopped two pair Jacks and Sevens and it turns out one of the three friends had limped preflop with pocket aces. We got it all in by the turn and the board failed to pair for him.

Coming up on the two hour mark the three friends started talking about how they had to leave in the next ten minutes, and a new and aggressive player sat down across the table. I was up quite a bit and decided the table dynamic was about to change for the worse. At this point the idea of booking a large win and getting to see my wife was more appealing than grinding it out here for another four hours. Additionally, I think I really needed to book a win from an emotional standpoint and I firmly believe that recognizing that need and leaving was a good quitting decision.

Stats:
P/L: $390
Hourly Rate: $195

Tags:   Blog · Made MoneyNo Comments