Poker Post..

Monday night was enjoyable and last night I was out for dinner with my parents before hitting the ps3 with the S-man later for a fine session.On the football front our rivals won last night which means we need to win tonight to stay two points clear with two games to go.Squeaky bum time!

I've played far less poker over the last few weeks than I usually do and as a result I've felt a lot more focused when I do play.Playing turbo sng's using the same set formula of ultra tight early and highly aggressive when the blinds go up doesn't really involve a lot of thinking and often I find myself ( even when 3 tabling) watching tv/surfing the net and only paying attention when it's push/fold time.

Having said that, I still don't seem to play my best game when I've got over 3 or 4 tables open and I think this comes down to missing the game flow aspect of when to push/fold.By that I mean that it may be ev+ ( positive expected value) to shove any two cards from the button or cut off when the blinds are high, but I like to know how often I've done that recently in the game,how the players behind are likely to react, and how my shoves affect my table image for future moves.It's also very easy to look at a players actions early on and make my mind up quickly if they are decent or not, but I have to actually be looking in the first place to gain that info.

Amatay posted about enjoying the game and I recently mentioned a Bluff magazine feature where they wrote about how playing just 150 sngs per month was mind warping.( in terms of variance and swings).There's no way I've gained any pleasure from playing over the last couple of months.Working hard during the day and then sitting down night after night and being outdrawn is a horrible soul sucking experience and about as enjoyable as I imagine sucking the farts from dead seagulls to be.

Phrases like "Money doesn't grown on trees" and "there's no such thing as a free lunch" ring true for me in life and I suppose part of the reason I keep playing is because I don't naturally expect profits to flow easily.Money doesn't come easily in any other walk of life so why should poker be any different? Even winning $1k months ( oh for one of them again soon!) are still a tough minefield of variance and swings.

I can beat the game.Variance in poker is part of the game,downswings happen, and it will turn around.It is very frustrating to go from making a decent ( for low stakes,low-ish volume) monthly profit to making very little or having a losing month.So far this month I'm about even which means I've made aprox $80 over the last 2 1/2 months! I'd have made more going round with a bucket offering to wash neighbours cars.

If I make $2 per game with a 10% roi at $22's I'd rather simply see $2 added to my roll after every game regardless of my finishing position.I do try and see it that way but the swings/variance are what make it so tough to deal with mentally as there's no fairness in poker and doing the right thing so often doesn't mean right outcome will follow.

Ok,thanks for reading.Back soon...