Synchronicity
I guess you're landing here hoping to read about how I just played 5 days of solid poker and am back on my horse. Well, it ain't that simple, see. I have just had a 5 day weekend, and it was fantastic. I read a great book about Troy and the Greeks and all that mystery. I did some work on my flat, though not as much as I should have. I watched the first 5 episodes of Heroes Season 2 and the film Kenny, both of which are excellent by the way. I played a little poker in between. There are problems, as you can probably tell. Not skill problems, or math problems, or bad reads. Just timing, or patience, rhythm maybe. It's a part of the game that's intagible, the zone where the pace of your brain is in sync with the cards, you love every minute of it and don't want to look away in case you miss a trick. Me these days, I'm bored after 20 minutes. Quite disconcerting really. I'm not sure if the solution to this is hammering away for four hours multi-tabling some cash games or burning through 20-odd turbo's a night. Maybe some meditation before playing would calm my thoughts a little better. I might try some of the above this week, I'll let you know if I do. Thanks for the comments on the last post, I've added this blog to my own google reader and the feed does work, so if you aren't getting feeds I think it must be the way you've set it up more than them not working from the blog. Good luck of you, hope see you at the felt.
Moments
Sometimes you have moments in life and at the poker table which are like the scene in the Matrix where Neo sees the world as code for the first time. Seriously, everything that once was random and mysterious makes sense in such a way that you can understand everything that’s happening and 90% of what's about to happen. Bet's, folds, calls are all spot-on and not through luck but perfect reads. It's almost like watching yourself in a movie that you've seen the next 5 minutes of. I miss that feeling, it took a hell of a long time to get close enough to grab it and I've let it drift off again. A large about of discipline is needed now if I'm ever to get my eyes on the prize again. I played last night in a couple of $5 SNG's and the $3 rebuy sat to the Sunday million. I played average, my hole cards I played well, but I had no reads and feel for where I was. I wasn't into it completely and my mind needs retraining to the meditation like rhythm of the cards. The only thing that'll bring that back is more hours so tonight I'll be on again, giving it my best shot.
Flopped the nuts
 As you can see from the calendar, the rest of my year is looking pretty sweet now. After having yesterday off, I'm currently working day 1 of a 3 day week. Next week will be 3 days long too, followed by 4 consecutive 4 day weeks and then a nice week off to enjoy before christmas. I'm practically a part-time for the rest of the year... I'm looking forward to this ! P.S. Congratulations to BurnleyMik for doing the double and taking down a BritBloggerment for two weeks running. I'm recalibrating my sights for you now !
Gutted
Completed my objective on Friday of booking Monday off work. Had everyone round on Saturday for the Rugby World Cup Final, which England lost. I did play a bit of poker though and played alright, with more concentration at last. Excellent, I thought, I'll get up early on Sunday, qualify for the Sunday Million, win a Full Tilt token to the "Big Game" and play the bloggerment. Except I was guzumped by my bloody adsl connection ! Aaargh. It's been 100% uptime for at least a year and the one day I really want the 'net it's not there ! In the end I got connected for about 2 minutes and got to see the final 4 of the BritBloggerment. Today it's back to normal like nothing ever happened. On top of all that Lewis Hamilton couldn't finish 5th or better to win the F1 championship and my very good friends R&R have had even more bad news, which puts all these silly moans into real perspective. Sorry for your loss mate, stay strong, things will get better.
S.T.F.U. Please
TFI Friday. I'm totally f'ing knackered, got a big weekend of DIY ahead and just want people to STFU and leave me alone today and let me drift through friday without the usual pointless questions and statements that I don't need to answer or know. Even wearing headphones doesn't register apparently as they continue to attempt talking to me even with them on. Is there no escape from stupidity at work on days like these. Guess not. Guess that's what I'm paid for. Guess I should STFU and get on with it ! Thanks for wasting 3 minutes with me :o)
Points mean prizes !
Some really tasty blogging competitions announced this week...  and  that's enough to make anyone join  and start playing again ! Thanks for comments guys and girls, nice to know someone's still paying attention ! No knews on the Monday Holidays yet, I've gone allin by insisting it's either that or christmas week, or I'll have to roll-over the days to next year (which they'll want to avoid) I've found a new bath, basin and kitchen sink for the flat which are in mint condition and are a steal at £90 for the lot. So this week I am mostly learning about plumbing, fitting blinds and also feeding my mates pet corn snake, which eats defrosted mice ! Be good, i'll be back before you know it.
"Fear is the mind killer" - Frank Herbert
The title of this post explains a lot more than just why I haven't played poker much since March, but it's a pretty accurate for poker and those other things are for somewhere other than here. I'm shooting for a big end of year poker drive so that 2007 does not become known as "the year Tan didn't play poker" To that end I'm trying to convince those who decide these things that using up my remaining holidays to book off the last Monday of this month and every Monday in November would be a really good idea. This will allow me to challenge for entry to the Sunday Million again, the ultimate in online tournament goodness. It would be a real result if I can get them to agree to this, not only will I have 4 day weeks till almost christmas, but I'll finally have something to aim at and a challenge which should make for some interesting posts in this dark corner of the blog-o-sphere. Watch this space !
This post is blurred
Friday, 10pm, realise I've forgotten to play in the RTR league game Saturday, 10pm, realise I've forgotten to do what I said I would and play some Sunday Satellites Sunday, 2pm play a 45 player SNG and finish 7th. Lose concentration after about 2 hours and get bored. Weak level of focus that is ! Monday, 10am, browse some favourite blogs and realise I forgot to play in the Pstars blogger game and the bloggerment. Typical of the way things are lately. Wake up call ? Who knows. I don’t know if I'll play tonight, at the moment I feel like it but by the time I get home tonight I'll probably have forgotten that too!
Here's one for ya...
Playing a home game a couple of weeks and the following two situations situized themselves : First, with 4 players left I raise UTG with 7h 6h. The button folds and a drunken sardine in the SB goes allin, showing his cards of QsQc. The BB obviously folds and so do I. Is this just plain stupidity, not in the spirit of the game, or rule breaking ? Second, still 4 players I'm on the button. UTG raises, I fold, the SB goes allin and then the drunken sardine goes allin again too and, with UTG still having a decision to make, sardine shows his cards again. Is this just plain stupidity, not in the spirit of the game, or rule breaking ? Sardine thought this was hilarious, whilst the rest of us thought it was at best bad form and at worst and illegal move. Having read some official rules I did find the following ; "A player who exposes his cards during the play may incur a penalty, but will not have his hand killed. If any player at the table saw his exposed cards, any other player has a right to know what the exposed card was or were." Which suggests it's not illegal, but to prevent it happening all the time and ruining the game there needs to be a hefty penalty.
hates..
- Not knowing whether it was blogger, facebook or paypal that got hacked so someone could buy a website subscription using my p-pal for £300 - Having to change 30 passwords just in case something else has been exposed - People who spit on the floor - People who borrow money then make you feel like you're asking them a favour when you want it back - People who take their best guess and tell you something like it's gospel - Working with people who say "I've found the answer!" then testing it myself and finding they haven't - Being the kind of person who won't finish things in case they are a failure. (stopping after a small gain instead of going for everything) - Not having the rush of "it's good to be alive today" like you did when you were 18 - People who think they are better than everyone else. Especially poker bloggers. - Being 30 and single - Writing a boring post like this and seeing it's the only thing I've written in 3 months. - Having post-holiday blues ! … loves to follow when I get over it !
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