So I haven't been tossing around too many virtual cards lately. I played a few 9-man single table sit n goes tonight after getting my ears lowered. Finished 1st, 2nd and 6th in $60, $60, and $38 games, respectively. Top 3 get paid in these games. Haven't really had much time or patience for the big MTTs lately, but will probably be dominating some in May when the SCOOP (Spring Championship of Online Poker) rolls around. It's a 3 week series of sick tournaments, with big guarantees and offering low, medium and high buy-in versions of each event. I was fairly engulfed in the Hawks/Canucks series the last couple weeks, as well as a bit of spring fever to get outside and participate in some sunny activities such as kite flying and hop scotch. I even set up a lemonade and free hug stand which was reported to the police by Neighborhood Watch for some reason. Maybe they felt it was unfair that I charged 25 cents for lemonade but the hugs were free? I didn't understand.
So a very intelligent friend posed some interesting questions to me the other day. They were more or less as follows "In the poker community, where is the line between a hobby/profession and an addiction?" and another one along the lines of "Do you think any of the successful professionals have addictions, or could they only be that successful with a clear head?". Good questions, and it provoked some thought and interesting conversation. She suggested it be the topic of my next blog post, so in honor of Ms. Jenn Hedayat, here are my thoughts:
Let's use the terms hobby vs. addiction for simplicity, but hobby could also be a profession. My simplest answer was that when it's a hobby, you control it. When it's an addiction, it controls you. I think those simple statements hold true with anything, not just poker. I don't think an addiction to anything is particularly healthy since you are losing control over your actions. Obviously I can't speak on behalf of the many very successful professionals (or not so successful), but I do believe the ones that are consistently successful over a long period of time are not addicts. To be successful in this game over a long period of time, you have to take a very calculated, controlled and responsible approach. Long term success is determined by skill and patience, mostly. Not just while playing the game, but in how you manage your bankroll, your downswings, your attitude etc. You weigh your risks, your rewards, calculate odds, observe patterns, maybe get a second opinion from your gut, then make decisions. If you're making the proper ones more often than not, you will be successful. If you're foolishly throwing your money around, you will not be successful. When you lose money foolishly you get a feeling of wanting that money back right away, and therefore proceed to take poorly calculated risks to do so. That's where the cycle begins and people cross the line, in my opinion.With anything, I feel it's important to strike a healthy balance. Too much of a good thing, or of any one thing can be a bad thing. I have one golden rule when it comes to poker: I never let it trump any good opportunities for quality time with friends or family, or any other good opportunities. Sunday is typically "poker day", but I make quite a few exceptions. It's all about balance and perspective.
When talking with Jenn she kept referring to poker as a passion of mine. I don't think I've ever referred to it as a passion necessarily, but she said she sees it in my writing. She might be right, I still don't know if it's a passion, or if I would be willing to try it professionally some day. Some days I think life as a poker pro would be pretty sick, and some days I think it could be a serious grind. Right now it's something I enjoy to do when I can, I'm good at it, and like I've stated before it's hopefully a means to a better life and increased freedom. The actual money itself isn't important to me, but the freedom money provides in this world we've created is important. I'm not looking for freedom to live in a mansion and have a chauffeur named Geoffrey drive me to the yacht club every Saturday, just the freedom to help make the world a better place. They say money is the root of evil, and I tend to agree. Among other things, it tends to wreak a lot of havoc on our planet. Not to mention the havoc Gluteus Weekly has caused on the world wide web. When one states such conditions of glutes, and the conditions aren't so, it leaves much to be desired by gluteus enthusiasts everywhere.
Thanks for reading.
Josh
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
My 2 Cents
Oh hi, anybody still reading this? Good. So since my last post nothing too exciting has happened in my poker world, and I'm on a bit of a downswing in my last two sessions since then. No biggy. What is a big deal is the shockwave that was sent through the online poker world this past Friday, quickly becoming known as "Black Friday". I'm going to cut to the chase with what will probably be the only "serious" post of my life, so here is my rant.
On Friday, the U.S. Justice Department shut down the three biggest poker sites to players in the U.S. and filed a 52 page indictment against their founders. These sites being PokerStars (where I play), Full Tilt Poker, and UltimateBet. In 2006, U.S. congress passed a law that prevented financial institutions from processing financial transactions related to online poker sites. This made it difficult for U.S. players to deposit and withdraw money from their favorite poker sites. The U.S. being the only country I'm aware of that has ever passed such a law. However, big hitters such as PokerStars and FullTilt were able to cater to their American players from overseas. PokerStars being based in the Isle of Man, and Full Tilt being regulated in the U.K's Channel Islands. They built a U.S. market which included millions of customers, and see billions in wagers per year from U.S. players alone. Apparently, Friday's indictment alleged these companies used fraudulent methods to get around U.S. gambling laws, and has since seized their operations and accounts in the U.S.
When I caught wind of this news on Saturday morning, I felt pity for every American tax payer. What a waste of time, energy, money, and resources. With all that is going on in the U.S., and all over the world today you have the American government wasting millions upon millions of dollars and resources cracking down on a game, a hobby, a passion, and for some a profession, shared by millions of people. A billion dollar industry spawned and they didn't have a piece of it...hmmmmm...weird that they are getting their noses in this. Government regulated state lotteries however, which take zero skill and only the abililty to show up at a gas station and foolishly throw your money into something where your odds of winning are approximately the same as the person who didn't even buy a ticket, are perfectly OK.
Professional poker players are tax payers, just like you and I with typical day jobs. Many of them are educated as engineers, lawyers, rocket scientists, accountants or stock brokers, but they found a better way. Many rely solely on online poker. Overnight, thousands of jobs were taken away in the U.S. And why? Thousands of people who turned their passion for poker into a profession are left helpless and unable to access their hard earned money. Should they all apply for unemployment now, U.S government? Welfare? Is that a better idea? Some of them turned to poker in desperation, in a country where the cost of education is the highest in the world (not to mention statistically one of the least effective).
A country that instills fear in its own citizens to justify war and the mass murder of innocent people. Online poker though? That is where people really get hurt. Consenting adults playing a game they enjoy and putting their own money at risk. I can see the issues here. Last time I checked PokerStars hasn't bombed any countries, or sent their employees into the line of fire. In fact, as a consumer I hold PokerStars in highest regard as a service provider. Their software is the most reliable and sophisticated in the business. Their support team is second to none. Emails are answered in less time than it takes to listen to all the automated options when you call Telus or Shaw. They always make sure your concerns or questions are addressed thoroughly. They keep immaculate records of your playing history, financial transactions, tournament history, etc and provide it to you at request. They take all concerns of collusion, offensive language, etc serious and let you know when the issue has been addressed. They even refunded me hundreds of dollars I had lost when I experienced internet issues despite it being explicity stated in their policy that it's one of the risks they are not responsible for. They raise and donate money to charities, or countries such as Japan in need of help. The tally of donations from PokerStars players right now is over 200K, which they are matching. That means at least 400K is going to the Red Cross in Japan. Much of that generated by the U.S. poker population...if those accounts haven't been frozen, that is. I'm sure the people of Japan are in no hurry to recieve the money, so take your time U.S. government, you're cracking down on a serious player here. Forget about putting extra money and resources to crack down on the terrorists, drug dealers, rapists, and online predators...let's punish the people who play poker. When was the last time you heard about a big crackdown on child pornography sites? Or news of the FBI locking down such online domains as they did with PokerStars and others on Friday? Obviously they've been pretty tied up cracking down on poker sites, or having tea parties with the Saudis, so I understand. Yeah, online poker is the real problem with America today, so this seems like a brilliant idea.
I'm not saying PokerStars and the other big hitters didn't break any laws. For now they are innocent until proven guilty, of course. I don't know or understand all the facts and I'll never claim to. This is just my "2 cents". Maybe they crossed the line to provide an extremely high demand service to their U.S. customers, but it's a line that shouldn't have been there in the first place. In the meantime, Canada and every other country in the world is continuing to enjoy the service provided by PokerStars and others. The United States of the America is clearly the land of the free.
Proud to not be an American.
Josh
On Friday, the U.S. Justice Department shut down the three biggest poker sites to players in the U.S. and filed a 52 page indictment against their founders. These sites being PokerStars (where I play), Full Tilt Poker, and UltimateBet. In 2006, U.S. congress passed a law that prevented financial institutions from processing financial transactions related to online poker sites. This made it difficult for U.S. players to deposit and withdraw money from their favorite poker sites. The U.S. being the only country I'm aware of that has ever passed such a law. However, big hitters such as PokerStars and FullTilt were able to cater to their American players from overseas. PokerStars being based in the Isle of Man, and Full Tilt being regulated in the U.K's Channel Islands. They built a U.S. market which included millions of customers, and see billions in wagers per year from U.S. players alone. Apparently, Friday's indictment alleged these companies used fraudulent methods to get around U.S. gambling laws, and has since seized their operations and accounts in the U.S.
When I caught wind of this news on Saturday morning, I felt pity for every American tax payer. What a waste of time, energy, money, and resources. With all that is going on in the U.S., and all over the world today you have the American government wasting millions upon millions of dollars and resources cracking down on a game, a hobby, a passion, and for some a profession, shared by millions of people. A billion dollar industry spawned and they didn't have a piece of it...hmmmmm...weird that they are getting their noses in this. Government regulated state lotteries however, which take zero skill and only the abililty to show up at a gas station and foolishly throw your money into something where your odds of winning are approximately the same as the person who didn't even buy a ticket, are perfectly OK.
Professional poker players are tax payers, just like you and I with typical day jobs. Many of them are educated as engineers, lawyers, rocket scientists, accountants or stock brokers, but they found a better way. Many rely solely on online poker. Overnight, thousands of jobs were taken away in the U.S. And why? Thousands of people who turned their passion for poker into a profession are left helpless and unable to access their hard earned money. Should they all apply for unemployment now, U.S government? Welfare? Is that a better idea? Some of them turned to poker in desperation, in a country where the cost of education is the highest in the world (not to mention statistically one of the least effective).
A country that instills fear in its own citizens to justify war and the mass murder of innocent people. Online poker though? That is where people really get hurt. Consenting adults playing a game they enjoy and putting their own money at risk. I can see the issues here. Last time I checked PokerStars hasn't bombed any countries, or sent their employees into the line of fire. In fact, as a consumer I hold PokerStars in highest regard as a service provider. Their software is the most reliable and sophisticated in the business. Their support team is second to none. Emails are answered in less time than it takes to listen to all the automated options when you call Telus or Shaw. They always make sure your concerns or questions are addressed thoroughly. They keep immaculate records of your playing history, financial transactions, tournament history, etc and provide it to you at request. They take all concerns of collusion, offensive language, etc serious and let you know when the issue has been addressed. They even refunded me hundreds of dollars I had lost when I experienced internet issues despite it being explicity stated in their policy that it's one of the risks they are not responsible for. They raise and donate money to charities, or countries such as Japan in need of help. The tally of donations from PokerStars players right now is over 200K, which they are matching. That means at least 400K is going to the Red Cross in Japan. Much of that generated by the U.S. poker population...if those accounts haven't been frozen, that is. I'm sure the people of Japan are in no hurry to recieve the money, so take your time U.S. government, you're cracking down on a serious player here. Forget about putting extra money and resources to crack down on the terrorists, drug dealers, rapists, and online predators...let's punish the people who play poker. When was the last time you heard about a big crackdown on child pornography sites? Or news of the FBI locking down such online domains as they did with PokerStars and others on Friday? Obviously they've been pretty tied up cracking down on poker sites, or having tea parties with the Saudis, so I understand. Yeah, online poker is the real problem with America today, so this seems like a brilliant idea.
I'm not saying PokerStars and the other big hitters didn't break any laws. For now they are innocent until proven guilty, of course. I don't know or understand all the facts and I'll never claim to. This is just my "2 cents". Maybe they crossed the line to provide an extremely high demand service to their U.S. customers, but it's a line that shouldn't have been there in the first place. In the meantime, Canada and every other country in the world is continuing to enjoy the service provided by PokerStars and others. The United States of the America is clearly the land of the free.
Proud to not be an American.
Josh
Monday, April 11, 2011
Take that, Monday!
So I was back throwing the virtual cards around Monday night after almost a week off. I spent much of my weekend glued to the Masters which was glorious. My boy Tiger made a Sunday charge but it wasn't quite enough. I wasn't a total sloth though, I managed to put pants on a few times and workout, take in old man Kruger's 35th (WHOA!) birthday dinner as well as some live music+beers (ok maybe even a martini) at Sam's Saturday night with Katy. Little did we know our night would end with us nearly being farted on. Short story shorter, we stopped briefly outside to say bye to someone on our way out, when a lurky smoker with his back to us practically massacred a group of ducks, and was definitely more surprised than we were at this sudden turn of events. Needless to say, it was worth a laugh. We walked a few steps down the street and I asked Katy if she remembered that time we were almost farted on. She did remember, so we reminisced and it was fun. Oh, lets not forget about my Blackhawks squeezing their way into the playoffs after a season finish that was way too close for comfort. Bring it on Canucks! After a weekend that solid I figured Monday would be tough to tackle, turns out that wasn't the case.
The day started with my first cycle commute of the season in some beautifully crisp weather this morning. Although the winter had softened my tailbone and made for a bit of a painful ride, it was still far better than being herded slowly down Crowchild like a bunch of horny sheep. When I got home I checked the mail and my tax return arrived. Neat. Then I was able to fix my front brake on Jake which had me stumped last night. Also neat. Then I found out I would be getting my replacement laundry card tomorrow, after finally giving up on my old one that probably decided to elope 2 weeks ago with the popcorn maker I swore I had (but recently found out I in fact do not). So as of tomorrow night I will no longer be two weeks behind on laundry and will be back up to my first string underwear lineup. Good to know, yes? Well I digress, after stretching and showering I saddled up a few poker tournaments. Made a good run in the $109 turbo that drew 547 entrants. I placed 3rd taking in a little over 5.5K. My other tournaments crashed and burned like Rory McIlroy on Masters Sunday, but it's tough to be disappointed with one sick run out of four. I went out with AK vs. A9 all in pre-flop. It was pretty standard getting it in with those hands when 3-handed. It was unpleasant that he spiked a 9 on the flop, but my good hands held all tournament so it's tough to complain. That 9 he spiked was worth an addition 2K for him after eliminating me, and first was another 2.5K on top of that. Pretty sick pay steps at the end of MTT's, but you can't always think of "what coulda been" or you'll eventually go off the deep end. I am donating 10% of these earnings to the Red Cross in Japan, through PokerStars. PokerStars matches all donations to the relief effort so figured this was a great way to chip in.
As for the rest of the week, I'm not sure what it will bring yet. Maybe one more session of cards during the week and then possibly tackle a Sunday session.
I win this week, Monday. But we will meet again.
Thanks for reading.
Josh
The day started with my first cycle commute of the season in some beautifully crisp weather this morning. Although the winter had softened my tailbone and made for a bit of a painful ride, it was still far better than being herded slowly down Crowchild like a bunch of horny sheep. When I got home I checked the mail and my tax return arrived. Neat. Then I was able to fix my front brake on Jake which had me stumped last night. Also neat. Then I found out I would be getting my replacement laundry card tomorrow, after finally giving up on my old one that probably decided to elope 2 weeks ago with the popcorn maker I swore I had (but recently found out I in fact do not). So as of tomorrow night I will no longer be two weeks behind on laundry and will be back up to my first string underwear lineup. Good to know, yes? Well I digress, after stretching and showering I saddled up a few poker tournaments. Made a good run in the $109 turbo that drew 547 entrants. I placed 3rd taking in a little over 5.5K. My other tournaments crashed and burned like Rory McIlroy on Masters Sunday, but it's tough to be disappointed with one sick run out of four. I went out with AK vs. A9 all in pre-flop. It was pretty standard getting it in with those hands when 3-handed. It was unpleasant that he spiked a 9 on the flop, but my good hands held all tournament so it's tough to complain. That 9 he spiked was worth an addition 2K for him after eliminating me, and first was another 2.5K on top of that. Pretty sick pay steps at the end of MTT's, but you can't always think of "what coulda been" or you'll eventually go off the deep end. I am donating 10% of these earnings to the Red Cross in Japan, through PokerStars. PokerStars matches all donations to the relief effort so figured this was a great way to chip in.
As for the rest of the week, I'm not sure what it will bring yet. Maybe one more session of cards during the week and then possibly tackle a Sunday session.
I win this week, Monday. But we will meet again.
Thanks for reading.
Josh
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
At last...Sunday wrap-up!
I've received some texts and emails from concerned readers regarding the delay in posting my Sunday tournament report. Some fearing the worst, that I was owned so badly I was avoiding the post. While it wasn't a Sunday to remember, it wasn't THAT bad, and I learned a few valuable lessons along the way. So to put my concerned readers at ease, here we go. WARNING: There will be some boring hand analysis in this post since there were some good hands to learn from....or vent about ;)
So I started my day in pretty typical fashion with breaky and coffee. Then I threw on some Kenny G and did some push-ups to get me in the zone. Ok well maybe I'm being ridiculous, I did not do any push-ups. Got going with the Sunday Warm-Up at 11am and some others. The day started out bad when I lost half my stack very early in the warm up with a monster hand that turned bad. I got dealt KK in the small blind. There was an early positon raise and I re-raised to build the pot and protect my big hand. He flat called so we saw a flop that came K-6-4 with 2 diamonds. Great flop. I bet, he called. Turn was a rag diamond. Ok, he might have a flush, but unlikely. I bet again, he calls. The river was a fourth diamond, and I have 2 black kings. Any diamond in his hand beats me. I figure if I check to him I'm showing him that I'm giving up without a diamond and he can steal it with any bet that I basically have to fold to. If he was playing some type of other hand without a diamond another bet would win me the pot. So I throw out a small-ish feeler bet and he immediately shoves all-in, leaving me no choice but to fold...sigh, goodbye half my stack 20 mins into the tournament. I would guess he probably had the AQ of diamonds. My luck didn't get much better and I busted about an hour later.
I took one afternoon tournament deep-ish. It was a $162 6-max (6 players per table rather than 9) with a 100K gtd prize pool. I finished around 20th out of about 650 entrants. I got a little over $700 for that which isn't too exciting considering that basically just balanced out the fact that I didn't cash in any of the majors.
The last major of the day (the Sunday Second Chance), I built up a pretty nice stack within the first hour. I had about 11K in chips (started with 3K) when the blinds were at 150/300. Then a very tough, but also very interesting hand arose. I was dealt QQ in mid-position, the third best preflop starting hand. An early position player, who I think was second to act and also had a big stack, raised to 600. I re-raised with my QQ to about 1600, to get a better idea of where I stand based on how he reacts. He flat called for the extra 1000 chips to see a flop. OK, immediately I feel the most likely hand he has is anwhere from 88 to JJ, possibly AQ suited, or a little less likely but still possible, AK (a lot of guys would re-raise me again with AK there) There is probably a 15% chance he is slow playing a big pair, like KK or AA (QQ very unlikely since I am holding it as well) and all other times he is re-raising me again with those. I had notes on this player from previous tournaments and knew he was strong and plays for a living. Although he is not really getting proper odds to call with smaller pairs, it's possible he would in this case due to the implied odds of us both having large stacks. The odds of flopping 3 of a kind when you already hold a pair are about 8:1, so you want your potential winnings vs. risk to be high. Anyway, the flop comes J-6-4 rainbow (all different suits). Pretty good flop for QQ. He checks to me, leading me to initially believe he is playing one of those smaller pairs or maybe AQ/AK. I bet about half the pot, and he throws in a small re-raise. Fishy. I call to see what he does on the turn and gain more info. The turn was a blank (some small and probably meaningless card), and he insta-shoves all in. WHOA. It costs me my entire stack to call. Now I have a really rotted feeling that my QQ is no good now. My initial thought was that he had JJ, 66, or 44 and is putting me on AA, KK, or QQ and has faith that I will call and pay him. Then I thought maybe he was slowplaying AA and put me on KK or QQ thinking I would call. UGH...or maybe he put me on a hand like AK and figures he can push me off of it with his marginal hand of TT or something? Hmm, not likely since he's too good to risk that many chips on a semi-bluff. I had a really bad feeling, but for some reason I reached for the 'call' button. He turns over JJ, I miss the last 2 Q's in the deck on the river and he sends me to the rail packing. I do not consider this bad luck, it was a bad call and a spot I easily could have (and should have) escaped from.
That is part of my game I need to work on. Getting away from really good hands that seem to have gone terribly wrong. I was a huge favorite preflop against JJ in that spot, but the flop was unkind and I turned into a huge underdog. He gave me all the info I needed to know my hand was not good anymore, but I didn't trust my gut. I think right now that is one of the biggest differences between me and the guys who are playing cards for a living and making millions. It's that fear of being bluffed that is a tough thing to deal with, and I need to learn to trust my instincts a little better. Great learning experience, and who knows, it might pay more dividends down the road than had I won that hand.....
Well, this wasn't the most exciting of posts, but the poker players in the audience might have found it interesting.
Unfortunatley I do not have any sailboat updates for my troubled readers at this time. I assure you I am working tirelessly to find you the answers you deserve. A big thanks to Katy for the sailboat education. It's becoming apparent that her passions extend beyond cycling.
OMG THE MASTERS STARTS THURSDAY...WOOOOOOOOOOOOO. With that gaining much of my attention Thursday thru Sunday, very tough to say if I'll be at the tables before next week!
Thanks for reading.
Josh
So I started my day in pretty typical fashion with breaky and coffee. Then I threw on some Kenny G and did some push-ups to get me in the zone. Ok well maybe I'm being ridiculous, I did not do any push-ups. Got going with the Sunday Warm-Up at 11am and some others. The day started out bad when I lost half my stack very early in the warm up with a monster hand that turned bad. I got dealt KK in the small blind. There was an early positon raise and I re-raised to build the pot and protect my big hand. He flat called so we saw a flop that came K-6-4 with 2 diamonds. Great flop. I bet, he called. Turn was a rag diamond. Ok, he might have a flush, but unlikely. I bet again, he calls. The river was a fourth diamond, and I have 2 black kings. Any diamond in his hand beats me. I figure if I check to him I'm showing him that I'm giving up without a diamond and he can steal it with any bet that I basically have to fold to. If he was playing some type of other hand without a diamond another bet would win me the pot. So I throw out a small-ish feeler bet and he immediately shoves all-in, leaving me no choice but to fold...sigh, goodbye half my stack 20 mins into the tournament. I would guess he probably had the AQ of diamonds. My luck didn't get much better and I busted about an hour later.
I took one afternoon tournament deep-ish. It was a $162 6-max (6 players per table rather than 9) with a 100K gtd prize pool. I finished around 20th out of about 650 entrants. I got a little over $700 for that which isn't too exciting considering that basically just balanced out the fact that I didn't cash in any of the majors.
The last major of the day (the Sunday Second Chance), I built up a pretty nice stack within the first hour. I had about 11K in chips (started with 3K) when the blinds were at 150/300. Then a very tough, but also very interesting hand arose. I was dealt QQ in mid-position, the third best preflop starting hand. An early position player, who I think was second to act and also had a big stack, raised to 600. I re-raised with my QQ to about 1600, to get a better idea of where I stand based on how he reacts. He flat called for the extra 1000 chips to see a flop. OK, immediately I feel the most likely hand he has is anwhere from 88 to JJ, possibly AQ suited, or a little less likely but still possible, AK (a lot of guys would re-raise me again with AK there) There is probably a 15% chance he is slow playing a big pair, like KK or AA (QQ very unlikely since I am holding it as well) and all other times he is re-raising me again with those. I had notes on this player from previous tournaments and knew he was strong and plays for a living. Although he is not really getting proper odds to call with smaller pairs, it's possible he would in this case due to the implied odds of us both having large stacks. The odds of flopping 3 of a kind when you already hold a pair are about 8:1, so you want your potential winnings vs. risk to be high. Anyway, the flop comes J-6-4 rainbow (all different suits). Pretty good flop for QQ. He checks to me, leading me to initially believe he is playing one of those smaller pairs or maybe AQ/AK. I bet about half the pot, and he throws in a small re-raise. Fishy. I call to see what he does on the turn and gain more info. The turn was a blank (some small and probably meaningless card), and he insta-shoves all in. WHOA. It costs me my entire stack to call. Now I have a really rotted feeling that my QQ is no good now. My initial thought was that he had JJ, 66, or 44 and is putting me on AA, KK, or QQ and has faith that I will call and pay him. Then I thought maybe he was slowplaying AA and put me on KK or QQ thinking I would call. UGH...or maybe he put me on a hand like AK and figures he can push me off of it with his marginal hand of TT or something? Hmm, not likely since he's too good to risk that many chips on a semi-bluff. I had a really bad feeling, but for some reason I reached for the 'call' button. He turns over JJ, I miss the last 2 Q's in the deck on the river and he sends me to the rail packing. I do not consider this bad luck, it was a bad call and a spot I easily could have (and should have) escaped from.
That is part of my game I need to work on. Getting away from really good hands that seem to have gone terribly wrong. I was a huge favorite preflop against JJ in that spot, but the flop was unkind and I turned into a huge underdog. He gave me all the info I needed to know my hand was not good anymore, but I didn't trust my gut. I think right now that is one of the biggest differences between me and the guys who are playing cards for a living and making millions. It's that fear of being bluffed that is a tough thing to deal with, and I need to learn to trust my instincts a little better. Great learning experience, and who knows, it might pay more dividends down the road than had I won that hand.....
Well, this wasn't the most exciting of posts, but the poker players in the audience might have found it interesting.
Unfortunatley I do not have any sailboat updates for my troubled readers at this time. I assure you I am working tirelessly to find you the answers you deserve. A big thanks to Katy for the sailboat education. It's becoming apparent that her passions extend beyond cycling.
OMG THE MASTERS STARTS THURSDAY...WOOOOOOOOOOOOO. With that gaining much of my attention Thursday thru Sunday, very tough to say if I'll be at the tables before next week!
Thanks for reading.
Josh
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