Saturday musings

Its been a fairly quiet week on the poker front.Only 7 hours play so far.

Listened to Jordan and Tripjax make an excellent job of their slot on the http://thefloppokershow.blogspot.com/.If you follow the link they are on around 35 mins into the show.

Added another couple of fine poker blogs to my link list.The Poker Enthusiast and the Closet Poker player.Both well worth a visit.

Mrs A and I rented "The Football Factory" on dvd for last nights entertainment and a fine film it turned out to be.

Mrs A was tired and went to bed after it and I hit the tables at Interpoker.Won about £45 then headed to Ladbrokes where I lost $40.Strange how I don't recall my big winning hands but the flopped King flush which ended up beaten by a villan with the Ace flush and my set of Jacks from the BB being beaten by a higher kicker stick in my brain.

Overall then aprox $40 profit for a few hours play but went to bed feeling it should have been more.

Cutting down my poker hours this week meant when I did play last night I was really up for it and I think thats partly what worries me about moving up.I can get away with "going through the motions" at the lowest nl 6 max tables.I can listen to my JR Cash,read blogs and chat to Mrs A and still do ok.I know that if my concentration is not 100% at $200 nl 6 max then I will lose money fast if/when I move up.

Last nights session at Inter was the most fun I've had for a while at the tables.I read Scurvy Dogs brilliant writings most days and his post today about needing a break really struck home.I felt better playing even after just cutting down on my play.I'm going out with the boys from work next Friday then going out for dinner on the Sat night with friends before leaving for a week in Egypt on Sun 19th.Hopefully that break should help sustain my enthusiasm for this fine game.

Easy to just say I felt better and had fun.I mean I was enjoying reading the other players and betting accordingly.I think I have a kind of inner self doubt that says I only do ok because I profit from the mistakes of others and not due to much I do myself.I see myself as some kind of tight rock who only bets with the nuts and who is going to get found out bigtime at higher levels.

Poker is such a grey area game.Not much is black and white.The best tip I remember from "Zen and the Art of Poker" is that the one thing you have to remember to do when moving up a level is to simply fold more.

My 6 max VPIP% ( Voluntarily put in pot) is 34% and my pfr ( preflop raise) is between 6 and 7% over nearly 20 k hands so I'm maybe not quite the rock I see myself as.

All about striking a balance between simply playing good starting hands and opening up when opportunities present themselves.Bringing a fresh enthusiastic outlook to the table means I can do both whereas in lazy poker mode its much more about just playing the cards.

It also sums up the multi-table dilemma.I can't claim to be a great multi-tabler.I tend to forget about reads to a great extent and hope that simply seeing more hands means seeing better hands and that in itself will be enough.Sometimes it is but when your doing this as a fun hobby its much more enjoyable to play one table and use your poker experience to outplay the villans on occasion.

I can play two full ring tables or even one 6 max and one full table without too much trouble but reading some players stories of 10-15 tabling quite frankly makes my head spin!

Just finished listening to Rangers beat Falkirk 2-1 away from home today.The big game v Villareal is on Tues night in Spain.We only have a slim chance of beating them and getting through to the Champions league quarter finals but its not entirely impossible.

Thanks to Veneno for the invite to Waffles birthday tourney.I'd love to play but as its a 1.30am start on Sunday night I'm not going to make.For anyone who can though its at Full Tilt at 8.30pm EST $10 +$1 and the password is Wafflesrocks.

Nice to see Juice update his blog today.He must finally be getting over the exciting news that his favourite UK male vocalist is Numero Uno in the American singles chart! I wonder if US workplaces will now be full of James Blunts singing "Your Beautiful" in annoying high squeaky voices.Apologies to any US readers if this is the case...

Ok Mrs A is out shopping so time to fire on my new PS 2 game ( Black) and start blasting some nasties...

Good luck at the tables.Back tomorrow with Sunday stats update.