You play like a jackass and win 30 bucks. I play what I consider well and keep getting cracked by morons. Seriously, the only the person I seem to beat on a regular basis was TW. I want to be able to play like an asshole and win money but it never happens. Did you see what they did to me??!?!?!?! WTF?!

I didn't know you have reached a point in your professional career where you can play 2/4 like a moron for fun. If so, lend me some money.

I did think you were trying to impress me. Also, I wanted to find an excuse to use the word machismo. Its a great word. Remember Razor Ramon in the old WWF? Oozing Machismo. That's how I pictured you tonight.

Hah hah, Razor Ramon rocked. Hey yo.

And might I add that I find the terms "moron" and "jackass" and "asshole" to be mildly insulting, regardless of their appropriateness. You're lucky I've got thick skin!

Honestly, though, while my play tonight did not reflect how I normally play, it was closer than you may think. I definitely do play more hands than I probably should; I also do more raising and betting than is probably recommended. While I don't open-raise to the extremes I did at that table, I do a lot of pre-flop raising, put myself in a lot of marginal situations...and while it's true that they're probably not all profitable, it has worked well for me thus far (when I don't get too out of line), and it helps me get a lot more enjoyment out of playing.

That being said, I did play like a moron/jackass/asshole at times.

-TW

So there I was, playing my 5-10 tables, when suddenly I get a phone-call from a friend I haven't talked to in a while. My multi-tasking skills are not exactly examplary, so while I was talking to him, I spaced out a bit and wasn't paying as much attention as I should to the tables...

Anyway, thirty minutes later, I hang up and discover much to my glee that I apparently won a few hands while in spaced-out mode...and then, to my shock and horror, I notice Piers is sitting at my tables! Not anything against Piers, but I worry about how much monkey-business I was engaging in while he was there. Hell, for all I know, he was one of the victims of my very-much-maligned suckouts that have earned me my reputation as a real lucky piece of shit.

Anyway, the bright side is that I played for about 2.5 hours and booked a win of $461. The dark, dismal and foreboding side is that I may or may not have once again subjected myself to complete and utter humiliation in the presence of yet another pot-bettor. I suppose these things happen!

-TW

No we didn't get to tango the short time I was there I actually didn't see you play but a couple of hands. You did the donation thing like me with AQ high one hand and the other hand that you won that I didn't like so well, you called a MP raise from the SB with KQo. I think the flop was something like 732 and you checked called the flop and hit your K on the turn. It worked out that time but I think long term this is definately a -EV play as you only had 2.00 invested preflop let this hand go. Ask yourself what are you really looking to hit on the flop after calling a raise with this hand. When you check the flop and the raiser bets you are getting 7:1 on your call to try and hit just under that 41:6 IF all your cards are outs and many times that is just not going to be the case after someone raises preflop. Just something to think about.

Glad you had another nice day. Makes work so much easier when you are pounding out the victories.

Piers,

Very true on the KQ hand, and this is something I've been trying to cut back on. When I'm playing well, I'll easily drop overcards if I have the slightest inclination that they may not be good outs. And for that matter, I'll drop hands like KQ against a raise, or in EP. When I'm not playing well, I'll take odds that are questionable even if they ARE good outs, and play hands in situations where I'm forced to play defense.

While I played pretty well today, I started to make slips like this later in the session. A good player once told me that a simple way to evaluate whether your outs are good is to ask the question: if I hit my out, will I feel comfortable raising? The fact that I hit my king and still went into check-call mode shows that they were outs I'd probably be best off avoiding drawing to. The root of this problem, of course, is calling a raise with KQ. As you pointed out, it forced me to play defensively, even when the turn hit me. Not a good situation.

The AQ hand was definitely a pretty silly donation on my part, enough said.

-TW

So there I was, sinking my teeth into what some would deem to be a perverse combination of eggs, tomato puree, garlic, peppers, garlic powder, and a touch of garlic, when...

Hold up a little, let's back-track. I'm of Italian heritage; my grandfather was born and raised in a small town in Southern Italy, famous for it's 170-proof alcoholic beverage that tastes stunningly similar to aftershave, but with more kick. He was apparently a sheep-farmer at some point, but that has no relevance.

My friend, Allen, can trace absolutely no part of his ancestry to Italy, but he's nevertheless been named an honorary Italian because of his superior cooking skills. Because honestly, that's all that really counts.

So there I was, sinking my teeth into what is called "Nova in Purgatorio", i.e. Eggs in Purgatory, an exquisite meal prepared by honorary-dago-Allen. It's sorta like poached eggs, except the eggs are poached in a delicious red sauce with garlic, peppers, and all sorts of other wonderful shit you'd expect to find in a good Italian meal.

Point is, it was delicious. That's really all I gotta say about that.

Headed back down to the trusty ol' 3-6 tables today, and booked a bit more than 3 hours. Came out 325 ahead, which was an excellant way to start the week considering the tailspin that ended this past one. I felt extremely on top of my game today, very much in control, and almost constantly in a comfort zone. That comfort zone is very important. It's that state where I constantly know exactly what to do with whatever shitty cards I happen to be playing. This is not to say I played perfectly, because I didn't. But the point is, I managed to play my ever-too-large selection of hands in the right places, without losing control and playing any two cards that can flop a pair or better. Cause that just ain't good poker.

When I'm in that comfort zone, I can do all sorts of fun things like isolation raises, aggressive defense and steals from the blinds, well-placed stab-bets on shorthanded flops. I get maximum value from sub-pair hands, but am able to drop a strong one when I know it's beaten.

When I'm out of the zone, I wind up calling too many raises with trouble-hands, chasing draws/overcards on dangerous boards, and rationalizing badly-timed bets into large fields, or bluffs into calling stations. I start making heroic, but inevitably disastrous ace-high call downs. I search through an entire range of my opponent's hands, find a single one that would have me in the lead, and justify my call because "he just might have A7!" When I'm out of my comfort zone, my bankroll suffers the consequences.

But today, I was in that zone, and it felt super-terrific. I'm thinkin' this is gonna be another good week, as long as I stay away from those god-damned shorthanded tables. Not to mention PLO. Grrrrrrrrrrrr...

-TW

Played for a little over 5 hours today, netted about 100 bucks. I suppose I should be happy with this, but I was hoping to do a bit better after the roughish day I had yesterday.

I feel I really was playing great for the first couple hours, but sadly, my cards absolutely blew during that time. I then went on a bit of a rush to get up about $220, but I slowly drained over half it away over the rest of the session. The last couple hours, I just wasn't playing as well. While I'd like to book 5 or 6 hours per day, I should probably consider doing it in two, or even three shifts. I just don't seem to have the mental focus to play my A-game all the way through a long session.

I apologize for the lack of my usual nonsensical ramblings, but I'm a bit bummed about my game over the last few days. Although I am up for the week, last week was so abnormally good that I feel like I'm sorta coming down off of a high. I suppose that's sorta inevitable.

-TW

I don't respond regularly but I wanna say that I really enjoy reading your journal. Keep up the good work and good luck in the future.

Title: THE END OF AN ERA

Folks, I'd like to start by saying that this post is rather difficult for me to write; that's because it's my last. I've really enjoyed this journal, and hope that some of you have had as much fun reading it as I have writing it...but, it needs to stop. Not just the journal, but poker. Well, for me, anyway. I'd really rather not get into reasons. Suffice to say that, at its core, poker is a form of gambling. Yes, there's skill involves. Yes, a good, knowledgeable player can win money at it. I know these things. But it can't be denied that poker is also a form of gambling. And where there is gambling, there exists the potential to develop a gambling problem. Today, I finally realized that I do have such a problem, and by finally calling it quits, I can finally start to make up for all the undue pain and neglect I've put upon myself, my friends, and my family, for far too long. For many, poker can be a great game/hobby/living. But you all need to realize that, regardless of what level you play at (be it a hobby, a profession, or something in between), LET IT STAY THERE. Do yourself and your family a favor, don't let it become an addiction.



Gotcha! Hah hah hah, oh come on, admit it, I had ya goin' there for a minute. You shoulda seen the look on your face when I started with all that melodramatic shit. Ahhhhh, christ, I haven't laughed that hard since George W's last press conference. Anyway, back to our regularly-scheduled programming.

I played two sessions today, for a total of about 3 hours and 23.38 minutes. Or so. The first session went pretty rotten; well, it started off wonderful, but then I had a few nasty beats, which put me in a rather tiltish state of mind, but thankfully, I quit before things got too ugly. I lost about 70 bucks, and had a very painful set-over-set pot that cost me $150-some. Okay, it didn't actually "cost" me that much, per se...it was still <censored>ing painful, though, so shut the hell up. I'm actually gonna post the hand in the limit session, because I think I may have driven my hand just a smidge too hard.

My second session, on the other hand, went very nicely; I felt very much in control the whole time, didn't get out of line, and made some nice reads for good measure. Most importantly, the cards didn't skull-<censored> me this time, so that helped. Made about 220, putting me $150 up for the day. Sure, I've had much better days, but from the standpoint of playing quality, I really think I finally brought my A-game for most of the day.

I might throw in one more session tonight, we'll see. I've also been reminded that I'm a lazy slouch and have not really been updating my blog webpage whatsoever. I actually didn't think anyone read it there, but I promise I'll start updating it again...ummmm...when I get around to it.

-TW