Getting It in Good and Bad

The goal, of course, is to get your money in good. Regardess of you ability to read and calculate, however, sometimes you get your money in good and still lose, get your money in with a great draw with odds but still miss, or get your money in bad. That's just the way poker is.

Nevertheless, it is ubelievably frustrating to have all of the bad happen collectively in one night, like two weeks ago.

The scene is the usual one: No-limit hold'em and pot-limit omaha, capped 100BB buyin (you can buy in double if you bust). Recently I have been playing well and running well. It's been fun.

I don't think I played terribly, but upon relfection I now think my reads were a bit off. I also was willing to play too many big pots, mostly because the hyper-agressive players were on my right instead of my left (meaning I was calling their raises instead of raising myself). Thats' the temptation of Omaha, of course -- it's so draw happy that you will often have odds (or convince youself you have odds) to run after your nut hands.

In any case, every time I got it in ahead, they caught up. Every time I got in behind (or with the worst hand that was a favorite with two cards to come), I missed. And every time I got it in with the second best hand in HE or PLO, I was shown the nuts. Very ugly.

Here's hoping next time goes better!

Quasi-wordless Wednesday II (To Borrow a Phrase)

I will try a new post in the next few days. I got crushed the last time I played cards, and it merits some discussion, but let me try to have a good session first to get the taste out ;)

Wordless Wednesday (To Borrow a Phrase)

My wife told me to post

And she's right, I have not been putting my thoughts out there for a while.

I suppose it's because the pace of my life has picked up, or at least is flowing much differently than before. While certainly Krissy is much busier at home than I am, at work and at home there's always a little something to do these days. The twins are just getting so big, and now that they're playing more they simply demand more of our attention.

Further, I have not been playing much poker. I am playing about three times a month live (which is only because I have an amazing wife who lets me sneak out of the house), but I am playing even less than that online. Online poker just does not work for me with babies in the house -- I can't focus on poker when the twins are there and may need my attention (I had concentration issues already!). Therefore, I play bad and I've lost interest. Maybe when they are sleeping more soundly and can entertain themselves a bit more I will pick it back up, but until then nothing but games with a pause feature for me.

Live poker is a different story. That's probably because I am able to get out of the house to do it, and thus distractions are at a minimum. Since early April I have only had two losing sessions (of nine), and both were only for about a buy-in. Every other session has been a win (in two cases big wins), and I have been very pleased with my ability to play better poker. Hey, in the grand scheme of things this is ultra-low stakes, but if I can't beat this game I can't beat anything bigger, either.

There are two things in my life, however, that need some work. One is my health. I'll probably always be a big guy, but I need to get focused on being a healthier big guy. I am trying to watch what I eat, and Krissy encouraged me to ride my bike more often. Hopefully this will be the start of something good.

The other thing is relationships. The poker players I play with are generally good people, but they are not friends I can turn to in need or people to share deeply with. Several of my real friends have gotten tied up in their own lives, kids, etc. lately, and I need to push through that and make sure we're connecting more frequently. I also really owe my best friend a call.

Poker? What?

I played poker Friday night. It was great. My wife is the greatest person ever.

I booked a 2 and a half buy-in win, putting me on quite a nice hot streak (up 7 buyins in the last three sessions played). Was great getting back into the swing of things. It helped that I couldn't miss -- literally flopped four straights, three flushes, and got a couple of people to push into me drawing dead.


And finally, more baby pictures!

Baby Shots!

Some Pictures

They're Here

And they're perfect. Will update with pictures, etc. soon.