Well, it seems like every blog starts off with damn, life is busy so I guess it is really true. Life is busy! Summer time means activates like vacation, so throw that into the mix with work and family and everything gets off track. The good news is I did take a good break from most things (work and poker). Stacy started her games with soccer as part of try outs. Five games over the weekend starting this past Friday. She is off to a great start as she enters her freshman year. I am looking forward to a great season of watching her play.
I did miss one of her five games to play in a poker tournament that I committed to before we knew the soccer schedule. This was the eighth year that this event has happened but my first time playing. I learned such a valuable lesson this time around. I started off playing solid and was in overall 7th or 8th place after the first break from looking at the table stacks. I made a decision to listen to my music on my iPhone. In a hand shortly after the break, I had a gut shot with the river card to come. I was heads up with the player exactly opposite from me, the two longest points on the table. He calls “all in”. I ask how much and the count came back”13″ from the guy next to him. I looked up and saw his stack of chips, a few red ($500) and a bunch of white ($25). I called. We flipped up the cards and he had two pair and I needed a 9 to make my straight. The nine did not hit and I asked for an exact count of what I owed. Needless to say when the count was $13, 225 in tourney chips, I was in shock! Deflated! Mad! Crushed! I was going crazy inside but couldn’t show it on the outside! I “paid the man his money” (Rounders quote) and was down to around $7k. I made another push and got too aggressive and ended up out in 24th out of 50 plus players. Not too bad but I really felt I would win this one based on how I was playing. Oh well, the good news is I am over it and chalk it up as just another learning lesson on my poker journey. Not staying focused like that will NOT happen again, believe me!
When I got home, what did I do? Got online into another tournament. I bought into an $11 tourney that had over 5000 people in it. First place paid $10,000 and the top 211 got paid something. For the first three hours I was in the top 100 usually around 45th place consistently. I got my chips in when I should and got beat with a guy getting lucky on a flush that he wasn’t even going for. That hurt big time and then I was on tilt and you know how that goes. I went out in 312th and it was another four hour session of training. That’s how I look at it.
I have to keep telling myself that I have been playing for a little over a year. Guys that I go against have been playing for 15-20 years! I log my time everyday and continue to get better and that all I can ask for. As long as I am enjoying it and not going broke on the bankroll, I’ll keep learning!