Monday, January 31, 2011

What's Right/Wrong with the WSOP

Jason and I put this together for Al Can't Hang at Poker From the Rail.

Flame away.

Thanks for my invitation for the World Championship of Blogging events, PokerStars. Oh wait, you never gave me a ticket? Guess I better get rid of this free ad I put up for you then...

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Poker Goals

Presently, I'm writing an article for FTP Blogger from the Rail about poker goals. What's a good goal? What's reasonable? What should you NOT focus on?

I used myself as an example of a person who used to set bad goals. The prime one being my focus on winning at least $10,000 a year. Because of the fickleness of luck you hit some ridiculously good swings and hellaciously bad swings. Can you really expect to win "X" amount of dollars in a month? In a year? Not really. Your focus should be on improving your game and making good decisions. The wins will come in the long run if you do those things.

It's not that much different than what Nick Saban beats into the minds of his football players. He emphasizes the focus needed to do the right thing and make the right play no matter the situation. If your focus is where it needs to be you will make the same play no matter if it's the first play of the game or in the last two minutes of a tied game.

That being said, I haven't made any goals for myself this year other than to play more poker than I was at the end of last year. I want to bring more balance into my daily structure, with a good mix of writing and poker playing. If there's plenty of writing work to do I will put the brakes on the poker. If writing is slow I can spend more time on my poker game. Definitely I will look for more opportunities to combine the two by writing about poker more this year, seeking out more freelance work and posting on this blog much more often than I did in 2010.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Back in Action!

Long time no see.

The last few months have been relatively busy, with few poker hands played by me. John Harper turned the big ONE in December, and I cannot tell you how much joy he brings into our lives. 'Bama had a decent year that was well below our repeat championship dreams, and Auburn came out of nowhere to win the title. The football season was, however, fun as always. I worked almost all of the home games for CBS and ESPN and was usually outside Bryant-Denny Stadium selling copies of Crimson Magazine before games.

I rarely even thought about poker since I got back from Vegas. When I did sit down to play I couldn't seem to win, and my online bankroll vanished as a result...$20 in PokerStars, $10 in FTP and $60 in WPEX. I think I played live once.

I did not come close to the ol' five figure win, ending my streak of six or seven years of scoring at least $10,000 from poker.

Sometimes poker is telling you to take a break.

So I did.

But I am back.

Well, to a degree. While I will definitely not be jetsetting to such farflung and exotic locales as Tunica, Biloxi and New Orleans on a regular basis, I am at least back to mixing in some online poker with my daily writing activities. Those writing activities have not included the subject of poker much in awhile, what with Rounder magazine seemingly folded.

Things have taken a swing upwards lately. Al Can't Hang is asking some of us regular FTP Blogger from the Rail guest posters to contribute more often, an Jason "Tennessee Spaceman" Kirk and I have begun a point-counterpoint column.

I managed to run that $60 up to $1,000 on WSEX, and thanks for the money I get from the ad for the good folks at FTP I was able to build my bankroll up some on that site, as well. I get to take a little weekend trip up to Tunica for the World Series of Poker Circuit event Feb. 4-7, too.