Author Archive
Ramblings of a poker player
Warning, rambling ensuing!
I never finished the WSOP posts. You can guess how it went. I lost… and lost… and lost again. It doesn’t matter what and how. One important moment was just the 2500$ 6max LHE Event, when I realized I was outclassed. The biggest soft spot I had in the 5 hours I was in, was a FTP pro. Lots of internet kids/posters I see at the nosebleed stakes all the time and whose game I respect so much playing the event, so at least it was cool to be playing in the same event as them, but otherwise I felt really blergh.
On the road again…
This city, man. This “love-hate relationship” city, man. This “play with your emotions until you can’t take it” city, man. I’m there again. Staring at the strip, at the flashing lights, at the scores of drunken people staggering through Tropicana Avenue as I try to cross the freeway to the In&Out.
I like this much more…
I was wandering around the Cafeteria today at work. It being a geek university, there were lots of stereotypical images of 20-something geeks wandering around. It then came as a surprise to me that I stared at a guy for like 10 seconds, because he reminded me of somebody I know from 2+2 that earns his living playing online poker. No, that couldn’t be him, he’s in Vegas right now, crushing the cash games, not worrying about stupid donkaments, even if he will play 2-3.
How can this happen?
I’m usually a very level headed person! At the poker tables I shrug off the bad beats easily and can maintain my focus very well. It’s then only even more discomforting that every now and then (about 3 times a year), I have those days where EVERYTHING becomes unhinged. And I don’t know why. It’s like a pendulum that is swinging very little, but every now and then it just goes off. Like an earthquake – disastrous.
Amazing May!
Since I wrote the post about thinking of doing this for a living, I have been on an amazingly sick heater. I am scared of course that it’ll all come crashing down like a house of… mhmm… uh.. cards. But on the other hand, I’ve been playing so focused it’s really amazing, b/f like a champ and being right about it. Actually smiling when I get bad beat, because the villaing didn’t extract most value out of me, etc.
May so far
I think being motivated to play is one of the biggest boosts you can have. Playing for the fun of it, you know, not being nervous about having a bad beat or downswing, just enjoying the moment. I was reading Shamus’ blog “Play the game” (linky) and all I can say that it’s true! You should enjoy the game and not be so uptight, why else are you playing this?
I want to, but…
I want to do this professionally. I know I can. I know I won’t get bored. I know I can be successful. I have been playing and playing and playing and my statistics say I can beat this thing. If I approach it professionally, I can beat the hell out of it and I would spend many, many more hours doing what I love.
BUT
am I throwing my “former” life away?
Bellatrix’ 2008 poker
So the year is ending… I should be working, but can’t come up with the motivation of running a single simulation or analysis, so I’ll write about the year that was 2008 instead for me in poker.
It was a good year. I gotta remind myself of that. I dropped over 2000$ in just the last 3 days of playing online (mostly tilt issues, which bugs me even more). I learned what it takes to win. I learned to be patient. I had fun again. I felt my heart racing again while learning new games, whereas 6max LHE has become robotic. I learned to approach the whole thing very professionally.
Lame (duck) UIGEA
So the UIGEA passed in its final form now (link). I’m sad, really really sad. Why is it that now that I finally am making a money at online poker the US tries to do this in a lame duck session? I don’t even understand how anybody thought prohibition of anything would be a good thing? Please, pretty please, Pokerstars, Full Tilt, Cake, please don’t leave the US. Please don’t make me cash out.
Long time no write
Poker players have got to be one of the worst population of bloggers. The ones that do write exciting blogs (Shamus, I’m looking at you, kid!) are writers from the get-go. What I’m trying to say is that when you play poker, you are trying to escape the monotony, the 9-5, the rules and the routine, so writing an interesting and current poker blog is damn hard. My hat is off to the guys I have on my RSS feed. I also love the stories more than the hands. Too many bad beats in hand posts and you know that if you want bad beats all you have to do is go to the smoking area at the doors of the Commerce.
