SFPT November and The Future

In what may very well turn out to be the last SFPT tournament for many months, a small field of six showed up to play last weekend.  I played decent, and finished third.  I had some good hands that didn’t get good results, but overall played pretty well and got my chips in at the end with a good hand. 

My best hand of the night was one I didn’t win, but made a good read – with A/K and a king on the board, I bet the flop and turn, and was snap-called both times by Kim.  After the second one, I checked the river and folded to her mid-range bet, putting her on an ace.  I was right – not only did she have one ace, but rockets.

In the end, Tom won his second ever SFPT tournament after outlasting Kim heads-up.

The big question for me now is, what role does poker play in my life from here on out?  My initial thought is, “not enough to justify a blog”.  But I’m going to keep this blog going, because that may change, and because it’s a fun record of a small portion of my life.

We may not play poker as much, SFPT wise, until the kids are older.  At least that’s my prediction.  The every-other-month events will probably pick back up at some point, maybe after our new baby is a few months old and we are comfortable that everything is going well.  I also wonder what impact the (potential) new casino will have on my poker career (and for that matter, Tina’s as well).  Will the closer location mean more frequent, if less lengthy, poker sessions?  Or will having two kids mean we aren’t able to play any more than we do now, and perhaps less?

At this point, it’s all speculation, because Lago hasn’t been awarded a license and said license isn’t a guarantee.  I will admit, I did get excited when I saw a couple of tweets from Seneca Niagara that referred to the “Seneca Fall Poker Classic” and my brain put an “s” after “Fall” for a split second, like a mental auto-correct.  If Lago gets their license, maybe there would be such a tournament.  Based on my initial reaction, I would play.  That right there tells me I’m not done with poker, and that I may pick back up with my frequency of play in the future.  In other words, it’s still fun.

One thing is certain – my previous internal debate of fun versus money is no longer a debate.  Money itself has become so menial in my life, in terms of its importance, that it follows that I can’t and won’t care about money when I am playing poker.  Rather than being a bad thing, I believe it will be good.  It is well-documented that I play far too tight in many situations; truly not caring about profit will allow me to loosen up even further and take good chances.

All of this remains to be seen.  With everything going on in my life now, poker has taken a back seat, which is fine. 

Marathon to 10k: 2.5 home game hours, 154.25 total home game hours, 265.75 total hours

Interlude to Equilibrium

My complete and total layoff from poker lasted just over 3 months.

We had an SFPT "event" last weekend, and though some things hadn't changed (namely, the kids being, as a group, wild and a distraction), some had.  Namely, I found that I was able to relax and enjoy myself, despite my belief going in that I wouldn't be able to do so.  Or more accurately, didn't want to.  I gave serious thought to only dealing for the game, and only decided to play a few hours before when it became apparent the field would be a small one.

I should have realized long ago that completely giving up on poker was not something I really wanted to do.  I acted and talked like it was, in the name of being selfless - still my primary goal in life.  But playing poker brings me a certain level of enjoyment, and more importantly, it's something I do with my friends.  The making of memories is something I never want to neglect, and giving up on the SFPT home games would be doing just that.

I'm glad we played a couple days ago, for those reasons, but also because I played well.  And won.  Winning helps, I'm not going to lie.  It's not about the money at all, it's about the confidence.  It also goes a long way toward making the whole experience more enjoyable, which probably goes without saying.

It was a seven player field, and the heads-up came down to Corrye and I.  Corrye made a great play going all-in after the river on what Tina agreed was a "scary board" full of straight and flush draws; I laid down pocket jacks and it turns out I would have beaten Corrye's eights under.  I thought I was screwed after that, but a couple shoves and folds got me a slight lead going into the final hand.  Slightly intoxicated and therefore not over-thinking the situation as I am wont to do, I moved all-in with A/5 spades and was called by Corrye's K/10 off-suit.

The board ran out blanks and I took home the win and $35 in prize money, not counting the $10 I had won on a bounty earlier in the night.  After my $5 Add-On, I was up $30 on the night, which went directly to Jules' bank account.

I think I have found a happy medium now - while I don't need to take poker as seriously as I was not too long ago, I also know I don't want to give it up either.  It IS fun, and despite the frustrations that sometimes come with having the get-togethers at our house, it is worth it.

Marathon to 10K: 3 home game hours, 147.75 total home game hours, 259.25 total hours

The Followers

I found myself again in a rut.

Not only had I not played a single hand of poker since the SFPT finale, it seems like I hadn't been interested in even reading or watching about the game, much less playing.  I'm not sure why. 

But, unlike the last time, I had confidence that I would be able to climb out of feeling that way. How it would happen I wasn't sure; I figured it would be the act of actually playing some hands, or coming across some coverage on TV that sucked me in.

I did NOT expect what actually happened.

Any time I am in one of these ruts, the one aspect of my poker playing/fandom that does NOT go away is keeping up with Twitter.  I follow any number of poker players, along with God-knows-how-many poker news outlets, media members, and the like.  Only rarely do I interact with anyone I don't know; I can probably count the number of times I have done so on one hand.  I've been trying to branch out with that recently, and in doing so I got a huge surprise.

Searching through my timeline a few days ago, I saw a post from online pro Katie Dozier, which promoted a book she had co-authored called "The Superuser".  I checked it out on Amazon, decided it looked cool, and added it to my wishlist.  As a wannabe author, I know how much even the slightest bit of positive reinforcement can help my psyche, so I fired off a quick tweet:

Imagine my surprise when a few minutes later, Dozier "Favorited" the tweet.  Hey, cool - unexpected for sure, and nice of her to acknowledge.

Then, the shocker:

Wait, what?  I'm still confused as to why she would follow me - there's nothing in my profile or tweets that would be interesting for a poker player, I don't think, except for MAYBE the list of people I follow.

Either way, very cool, and somehow, I feel motivated to get back in the game.  I now officially have the eye of a legit poker pro, and while I don't know if it'll last, it's cool.  (People clean out their "follow" lists all the time for many reasons.)

Some reading of "Bluff" this morning at the gym enhanced that feeling.  I was hoping to play some online today, but work isn't letting me.  Damn it.

I will get to it before Turning Stone in a little over a week, and while there, I want to remember to tweet some results so I have some legit poker in my timeline, and see where that brings me.

A Rare Weekend

For maybe the first time ever, I played in two different home game tournaments on the same weekend.  The first was the October SFPT get-together; the second, an eight-person buy in at Oscar's friend Josh's birthday party.  Both went fairly well, though not obviously in some ways.  A couple of quick recaps:

I ended up winning the SFPT tournament, besting an eight player field.  I will admit that I was catching a lot of flops and turns, so the amount of skill required to take home the win wasn't as much as it seemed.  Still, a few things went right.  Namely, early in the tournament, I had donked off a lot of chips before the first elimination, and suddenly realized I really wasn't focusing as I should be.  I got back into the game more at that point, mentally, and the big takeaway is that I actually made the realization before it was too late.

One had stands out, partly because of how I played it, and partly because of who I played it against - Tina.  Pre-flop, there were three players left, Kim being the third.  The flop came J/4/9, and Kim checked.  I also checked, and Tina, short-stacked, moved all-in.  Kim quickly folded, and I just as quickly called, flipping two pair J/4 to beat Tina's pair of nines.  It was exactly what I hoped would happen, and for once, the trap worked perfectly. 

Discussing the hand a couple days later, Tina commented something along the lines of "of course you trap, you love to trap!"  My reply: "yeah, but the difference now is I know when to pick my spots."  She agreed, giving more credence to the idea that I've come a long way.

I ended up playing Ray heads up, and though that battle took a little while (blinds got to 700/1400 for the first time in SFPT history), I was able to prevail.  I made a good lay down early on when I folded top pair after the river; Ray's reaction (motherfucker!") told me he had me beat.  Other than that the play was pretty standard.  I made out good on one semi-bluff holding king high, and the final hand saw Ray's nines lose to my A/Q off when a queen hit on the turn.

The tournament at Josh's party was interesting, and a bit of deju vu, but not in a good way.  Thanks to my apparent illiteracy, I arrived late, reminded only by Oscar's timely text.  To my surprise and happiness, the other seven guys agreed to blind me out until I got there, and I only missed two hands (and one blind).  The deja vu part came when I came inside, said happy birthday to the man of the hour, and sat right down to start to play with no chance to prepare.  Thanks to running late and being embarrassed by that fact, I had the same nervous/anxious feeling that I had when playing my first "real" live session and tournament, and after busting the tournament and moving directly to the cash table at Turning Stone back in April.

But, I also had that experience, and knew how to mentally combat the feelings.  After folding my first hand, and taking my turn as dealer on the next, I stood up and went to get a drink, making sure to concentrate on breathing and calming down.  The result wasn't immediate, but it worked, and a couple hands later I was back to normal.

Knowing only two of the other players at the table (Oscar, and his friend Clint, whom I've played with before) made for an interesting time, but a very good experience - unlike the SFPT, the aspect of the unknown was much better practice for me.  I made one bad laydown post-flop when a guy to my left raised, and the guy on my immediate right shoved all in; I had A/Q on an A/10/5 board. 

The problem with the fold was that my rationale was SFPT-based: if someone already called, let them fight it out.  But, this was a winner-take-all freezeout; I should have called there and saw what happened, because being out in 7th is no worse than being out in 2nd.

It turns out I would have won the hand with my aces. Oh well - it's a good lesson for next time.  File it under "know your tournament structure".

I ended up out in fifth when I chased a straight and missed (adjusting to my "first place or nothing at all" strategy that I realized one hand too late) for most of my stack, and was eliminated when my pre-flop shove of pocket queens lost to a pair of aces in a three-way pot.  I had no problem with that hand in particular - pocket face cards while short-stacked is a no-brainer shove.

One other item of note: the player two seats to my left, John, was from the get-go a very aggressive player, raising almost every pot at least 3 times the big blind.  He won a lot of pots that way, and later claimed when talking to Oscar and I, "I only bluffed twice all night".  Oscar had an immediate and I think accurate retort: "Yeah, and one of them is right now."

Learning to deal with aggressive players is, I think, something I need to work on.  I don't have a lot of experience in that regard, as most of the SFPT regulars are conservative by nature.  I feel like I adjusted well to John's play once I realized his raises were going to be commonplace.  Had I hit my straight, not only would it have won me a big pot, it also might have changed his approach regarding raising when I was still in the pot ahead of him.  So, I'm not upset - it just didn't work out.

Recapping the weekend from a profit and experience point of view:

Buy-Ins: $20
Winnings: $40

Bracelet Hunting Update: $30 added, $80 total ($10 set aside for Add-Ons for Ally for the November tournament)

Race to 10k Update: 4.75 home game hours, 133.50 total home game hours, 243.50 total hours

Back in The Rut

So here I am once again.

Not only have I not played at all since SFPT September, I don't even have the motivation to do so.  What's worse, I am a full issue and a half behind on "Bluff".  That might be somewhat excusable given I have been reading a lot of books lately, but this next item is what really surprises me:

EPT London is going on right now.  I knew this ahead of time, but when the opportunity came to take a look and watch some live coverage, I declined, in favor of continuing to listen to XM Radio while I worked.  Even a couple months ago this would have been something I jumped at, racing home from the Rec and logging in right before even checking email.

Now?  Not interested, and I don't know why. 

I think part of it is that I have been away from poker for so long.  Reading and watching are fine, but I have been distracted with so many other things lately, I haven't been willing to focus on poker (to be fair, the distractions have not all been bad things; in fact, few of them are, so maybe "distraction" isn't the right word.  Perhaps "occupied" is a better classification.)  However, the November Nine is coming up soon, so I'm betting that will rekindle my interest at least a little bit.

Another part of the problem is one I have discussed many times already: I feel like I have plateaued.  The only way to get away from that is to play, and I haven't had that opportunity at all.  I'm not whining - if i wanted to make it happen, I could.  But there are other more important things in my life.  As much as I love poker, I'm not about to jet off and leave my wife and daughter behind so I can play.  How much of an ass would that make me?

Answer: a big one.  The biggest.  And I'm not doing it.  There is a solution I will find, a balance I can strike.  Stay tuned.

Poker Mentality

With the next SFPT event looming on Saturday and not having played much since the August tournament, I decided to pop back on to Full Tilt both yesterday and today for a couple tournaments.  Both went pretty well: yesterday I finished 2nd in a 250, 1-table SNG, and today won a 6-handed 1-table SNG. 

In the 9-handed event, I was barely paying attention, but in this case that isn't a bad thing.  I was able to play the math, and let my subconcious mind work picking up trends, patterns, etc.  This isn't new for me, but using that information in real-time is.  I was able to do so, and got my chips in with the advantage, only to have the math bite me once again.  No big deal.  From that tournament, I also took away the fact that if I can play that well not paying attention, I have a lot of upside for when I actually do focus.

The 6-handed event today comes with a huge astrisk.  One player was eliminated on the first hand, and two others were sitting out almost from the beginning.  As soon as I recognized this, I loosened up my play, knowing in reality I was only playing against two other opponents.  I was able to KO one of the others not too long after, and though the second guy was a much bigger challenge (I couldn't really put a read on his betting patterns), I was victorious over him as well.

The hand that finished him off is one I am proud of, not because of how it turned out, but because of how I processed the information.  I raised 4x the big blind pre-flop with 8/8, and was called.  The flop was 4/7/5, and I c-bet half the pot.  A snap call, and turn J.  Here's where I processed what was in front of me: an over pair to all but one card, a straight draw, and a better than 2:1 chip advantage against an at least semi-aggressive player acting after me.  I shoved all-in, and was called with Q/10.  River 6, straight, and to quote Hawk Harrelson, "he gone".  The other two were still sitting out, and the result was a formality.

Which leads me to why I'm really blogging today.  That sequence of events illustrates an area in which I've made great progress over the past few months.  There were any number of hands which could have had me beat, or at least had me behind in terms of what we were drawing to, but I absorbed all of the information available to me and took a calculated risk.  That is the essence of poker.

It's also the essence of life.  Very rarely is there a situation in life that is black and white.  Gray is the new black; there is always ambiguity in every situation you face.  The ability to process incomplete information and make smart decisions is one of the factors that separate the successful from the unsuccessful, no matter your definition of success.  Nate Silver once said that poker players are the best he's seen at evaluating situations correctly.  I'm not sure if that is because of poker, or if people of that nature are drawn to poker and find themselves successful in part because of that attribute.

Either way, there's a very strong parallel.  Mel Levinson and I always talk about "Baseball Mentality", which we have loosely defined as taking a situation as it comes, reacting calmly and without undue angst.  Even the best of all time will fail in their objective six times out of ten.  In that spirit, I am ready to officially christen Poker Mentality: taking all of the information available to you, processing it in relation to the situation, and making a decision based on what you know without being overly concerned about what you don't know.

Poker Mentality shall become one of my attributes - at the felt, and in life.