Last week was sort of a poker boot camp for me -- lots of live action in Tuscaloosa, some MTTs, reading strategy books from the masters of the game as well as narratives from the likes of Chris Moneymaker for inspiration. (Not exactly the greatest writer of our time I'm afraid. If I read one more "I threw in with them" or "I bet straight away" I told myself I would put down the book, but I refrained.) One thing I noticed about Moneymaker after reading ths book is his scary gambling problem. The guy was up to his eyeballs in debt thanks to a nasty sports betting habit. He was only a break even poker player until he won the main event. Quite a lucky story.
Can it happen again?
It probably will for somebody, but the key here is will that somebody be yours truly.
I realized the other day while playing a tournament on Full Tilt that I just haven't played many MTTs in the past year. I'd been so busy with grinding out a living at the cash games and leaving my tournament action for my various trips that I never played many online tournaments. Maybe that was my mistake.
It hasn't been much of a living this year. Adding up my monthly totals for the first six months of this year, I found that I had won...are you ready for this?...a grand total of $3,000 playing poker.
Did I really win nearly $10,000 last August? (Oh yes, wasn't this in my last post?)
What the heck went wrong here? That's how fickle this silly game is. You think you're a world beater one month and the next you can't win a hand. It's pretty disheartening when you're sitting there in your little local $5-$10 limit game and terrible players are cackling as they draw out on you repeatedly. But then you realize how stupid it is really to play poker for a living. These people have real jobs and they're just playing poker to blow off some steam and have a good time while it's your fucking livelihood. Who's the chump?
I let a notable anniversary pass recently without acknowledgment -- that's the anniversary of my unemployment. It was one year ago sometime last week that I left the paper. Since I decided months ago not to go back, I haven't really thought about it much. But there it is. I'll discuss the significance of that more when I'm chilling in my Binion's hotel room.
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