Marks for effort : C-

Sorry for the lack of update recently. I've gone and got myself sick, so haven't played. In fact the last game I played was last Tuesday, my second time live at the local club and then online when I got home from there. With any luck I'll be playing and posting again by the end of the week. I have been twittering here and there so hopefully that's worked like a drip-feed for the 3 of you that still read this ! (you're so kind) !

Deeper Degeneracy

Since booking this years Vegas trip in January it has somewhat unbalanced everything else, every time I spend or decide not to spend some cash, my first thought is 'how's this going to effect my Vegas bankroll?'. I don't necessarily want to spend a huge amount while I'm in town but I really don't want to be worrying about how much I'm putting on the table either. And so this brings me to my recent expense, last night I bought a new vehicle. New to me, not new to the world, in fact it's nearly 20 years old.
Before we carry on I should explain that I am not a 'petrol head', and I rarely have need for a car at all. Since my previous car broke down in November I have learnt that almost everything I did with a car can be done with my bicycle and I am far fitter because of it. There is however one critical task that can't be done without a 4x4, moving my speedboat in and out of the water. In winter it was no concern but with potentially the hottest summer since 1976 just over the horizon I had to buy something that was capable of moving my boat whilst at the same time not being so new/nice that I didn't want to get it covered in sea water / sand. So last night I shelled out £1000 on an old Shogun that runs and will do the job, at least for a season.

I don't feel happy that I've got a car again.
I don't feel happy it only cost 1k
It's a necessity more that a luxury
But I'm pleased that part of my cashout from Stars paid for it
It'll be worth it when the summer fully arrives
I'll be happy about it then

But right now I know I'm a degenerate because I'm just thinking it's $1500 less gamblin money in June !

Shock run-good of the week… I emailed the Mirage and their poker room still had copies of my ITIN record from 2004. So now I am a number not a man !

"It's all about pot control, right?" - Peter Eastgate to Joe Hachem, WSOP2009.

The above quote is one of my favourites from the coverage of last years WSOP, which is currently airing on ESPN over here in the UK (and by the way I don't know what Everest are complaining about, their marketing is in my face every 5 mins during the broadcast). Another quote I like is "why do the pushin' when the donkey will do the pullin'"

The previous week, when I hit a couple of final tables in 180's my pot control was getting really good. I was improving at small-ball, helped by Daniel Negreanu's section on the subject in his book Power Hold'em Strategy. Since Saturday my attempts at pot control have been failing and I'm not entirely sure it's my fault. Pretty much everytime I've had a big starting hand I've been forced into a decision for all my chips. Even when I've got a decent number of chips I've been running into the guy who's had a horseshoe up his ass for the last 20 minutes and has an even bigger stack. After a raise from me he reraises forcing me to call half my stack or push, I push with QQ get called by 88 and the board runs out 567-7-4. I raise with KK get called by the BB and see a Q73 rainbow flop, the BB check-raises allin and I call to see Q8 hit an 8 on the turn. I know what this sounds like. It sounds like bad beats AND it sounds like I'm being results oriented. If there's a point, other than just having an outlet here, I guess it's that even though I am not a believer in the get-them-all-in-there-with-any-edge strategy sometimes my opponent will force me to do that. Sometimes they'll get lucky regardless. Sometimes it'll happen more times in a row than you thought possible. If anything it reinforces my belief that small-ball is better than long-ball.

The trick is to keep playing well, and not let the mind/ego get tricksy with the best possible play at this moment.

Just writing this post helps me do that better.

Proof

Guess that last post was true. Still, if posting = winning I'd be more than happy to post more often !

If you're going to stay up till 1.30am on a 'school' night you better make sure you win the damn thing :)