Thursday, November 30, 2006

Could be something, most likely not.

Ok, gotta just jump back on the horse. Writing has been really difficult for me for a couple of weeks now. I'm not really interested in saying nothing, and when your are a not so gifted writer the BS just ends up coming out just like BS.

So I'm just gonna try an go through a little life report and see if it generates some sparks. And for kicks I'll work backwards.

I've been utterly useless today, sleepwalking through another day. Having some bizarre chest/throat/head thing going on is no fun to boot. Combine that with horrible eating habits, an accumulation of 6 hours sleep in the last 2 nights and you have my general state of being somewhat realized. I was fully intending to drop the kids off at the bus stop, turn right around and go back to bed. For some stupid reason I couldn't make myself do it and found myself at my desk some 45 minutes later.

I really had a great nite playing cards last night, results-wise, meh...up a small bit, but I still feel like I am playing really great. Early in the mook, I lost some chips to a re-raise so I had to be patient. Fortunately (unfortunately as you will see) I woke up with QQ in the cutoff and I had one limper to me. I raise about 4x the blinds to lose the ace/crap play hoping for a fold or a chance to push. I got a call from the BB and the limper folds. JJx comes the flop, and I can't see checking here. My only option is min raise or push. Being me, I pushed and was called by TT. ..hiiiyyyyyeeeeahhh . I'll spare you the rest.

Big props to my ATL brethren for getting 1st and 2nd in the mook last night. Way to represent BRAIN and Surf!!

So I sign up for the 2nd chance horse and a 22+2 turbo. I can't say much about the horse game, I played my usual questionable hands and had some fun. I hate Stud, I have no concept as to how to play this as 2 pairs usually take it down..or so it seems. I freaking dominate the 22 and my head is getting bigger since I knocked Gracie out of HU4 earlier.

Grace and I have been trying to get together a few times, but being the holidays and my lack of playing time over the last 2 weeks we had a tough time getting together. When I sparked up the old poker machine, imagine my delight when I see the little yellow smiley next to peacecorn in the girly chat. So I think to myself, "Self, you might as well bite the bullet and get yourself tore up by a former WSOP player and uber cool lady.

Something happened though about mid way through the first game. I felt goot! I felt in command. I switched up a little from the bet, raise, fold school and took some chances. Go figure, I start catching and rolling.. I made one questionable call in the third game with TPFD top pair flush draw. I held the Q and put Gracie on AQ- QT she pushed the turn and I knew she did not want a call, but I gave it and her trashy 2-pair held up. Other than that, I bobbed and weaved my way to 3-1 fairly quickly. I think we were done with all 4 matches in under an hour, or close to it.

I do not want to give the impression that I somehow outplayed her, I just got cards when I needed them... end of story.

Work has been creating a bit of tilt for me lately as I go through periods of utter boredom to frantic frustrating juggling to finish 'emergency' projects. I'm still the guy they come to when they get stuck or can't figure something out...so as long as there are persons of questionable intellect in my workplace, I'm good. I still have a 'crossing every finger' type opportunity that is beginning to look bleak, but I'll hold up hope till I hear something.

So Tuesday night at the wheetie was a trial in frustration. I made a hammer play fairly early and couldn't get some donk off Ax soooted. I should have paid attention, since it turns out he was a calling station overvaluing aces on a couple of occasions. Then it just turned into one of those games where i didn't get paid off when I wanted action, my moves missed completely, then frustration took over.

Its a snowball effect that creeps into MTT's for me a bit. It seems like I can take a a sequence of hands and roll on up, but if I get beat bad or have a string of plays with decent hands that don't hit, I get frustrated and things move south. In late stage situations, I usually have chips to lose, and this doesn't affect me, but early in tournaments a bad hand can ofter spell early destruction for me, as evidenced in both blogger tourneys I played this week.

I've been thinking alot about temperament and am not going to continue playing when I am not concentrating. My temperament and my concentration goes hand in hand. Essentially, if I'm concentrating in the moment, my actions are not dictated by my feelings. And all good cash and tournament players that I know are able to remove emotions from the decision making process.

Saturday and Sunday I spent in bed or on the couch as I was overrun with exhaustion and the onset of a cold. The wife was super spectacular at taking the kids away to let me wallow and rest. She was also retuning my favor from Friday when I let her sleep all day....she bounces back in ~24 hrs.....I'm still hacking up pieces of lung and sound like I've had my larynx removed 5 days later.

Ahh what else. Turkey day was awesome. I am lucky enough to have most of my family within driving distance and was able to hit up lunch at big bro's house and dinner at my wife's aunt's.

The wife is almost done for the semester and is gearing up for 3 big finals in Constitutional Law, Torts and a 3rd one I'm forgetting, you lawyers out there can feel her pain I'm sure. This means she will be spending a vast majority of her time the next two weeks studying, reading, and sleeping possibly allowing me to concentrate on poker and house stuff.

So that just about catches me up on what I'm not posting about for the past week. I'm looking forward to hitting the virtual felt tonight all hopped up on cold medicine.....yipee!!

1 comment:

Short-Stacked Shamus said...

Great post & blog. Hope that cough medicine-slash-tryptophan buzz helped at the tables Thurs. night!

Was posting a hand the other day & unwittingly used "23skidoo" as a made-up moniker for one of my opponents . . . waffles clued me in. Given your blog's title, the irony is about as thick as Turkey day stuffing, I'd say . . . .

Am adding you to my list of regular reads. Take care.