I don't notice details. I live my life trying to get from point A to point B. When I meet a person or have an encounter, I don't waste time observing what color pants they are wearing, the background sounds, or even the landscape. It is true I do quickly scan girls I encounter to put them in one of my many boxes ranging from hard to look at working towards that is an admirable feature, ending with way to attractive to waste my time with. But even then I don't pay attention to details, just the basics. I wake up and goal it to get to work, everything inbetween is useless. I try to do everything like a precision strike, get in, get out and then relax at home. That is what grocery shopping, school, and even going out is like. I feel like I need to start paying attention, stop living in my head so much and appreciate the things around me.
I spent all day at work in front of my computer and once the clock hit 5pm, I rushed home on my 40 min commute to play the $10 re-buy poker tournment I had joined online right before I left. In my mind I thought, well it is only ten dollars, so it could be fun. I don't mind sitting out the first half hour or so because the blinds are low and I want to wait until a few people are out. There were about 1000 people playing. I quickly added on 1500 chips to my 1500 for 10 dollars, and at the end of the re-buy period added on 2000 chips bringing mup up to 8000 for 10 dollars more. By this time, I had already invested 30 dollars into a tournament I was sure to lose. When my total bankroll for poker is about 100 dollars, this probably isn't a great idea. I decided to play tight and was in about 9% of the hands dealt. That is not easy to do. I did get lucky a few times by having my coin flips hold up, but then as 3 hours had passed, I noticed that I was getting closer to cashing. The cash pool was over 40,000 dollars, but first prize was a little over 10,000 I think. 8th place was 1000. At 81st place you win 87 dollars and it goes up from there. 81st place became my goal. I know it shouldn't be, but I didn't plan on getting this far in the first place, but to be honest of course I hoped or else I'd never play. So now 100 people are left and I have outlasted 900, which was a feat in itself. I had a medium to low chip stack, so I wasn't too worried about feeling rushed to play and figured I could just wait. Then I decided to try and steal blinds with a 4times the big blind raise with AJs. I get re-raised. Those were 4 big blinds I didn't want to lose. The guy who re-raised was larger than me and I put him on KQ or 10s. I didn't care if he had 72, I didn't want to raise the rest of my stack so I folded. Now I was much smaller, but still ok as now only 85 people were left. 4 people to go and I make 57 dollars. I did not want to be bubbleboy. Then it happens, I get pocket queens in the big blind. A guy who is smaller than me raises all in. I had no problem calling him because I knew he was desperate. But then the guy next to me, who was larger than me called. I wanted to call, I knew I was probably the favorite, but against 4 cards (2 and 2), my guess was one of those guys had an Ace and the other had a King high. Plus, they could also just get lucky with anything. So I think about it for as long as I can...if I call and lose then I am out one place before cashing. If I call and win, I will have a controling chip stack and will probably make it up to the next level of 109 dollars with no problem. Deal or no deal? 0 dollars or possible at least 109. Mark comes in and tells me to call. I fold. The cards come up and they are both trash, one guy had a K, the other had a J maybe. My Qs would of held up as the board was also trash and I sit there now with a much smaller stack (folded the big blind) watching what should be all my money go to the other small stack. I make it past the bubble and cash, making my 57 buck profit, but I was too small and inexperienced to do much damage. I soon called by a larger pair when I tried to double up finally going out in 72nd place out of 1000. This was over 4 hours of poker play later. This was also a long day in front of a computer. I am still proud of how I played and still feel my fold was the best decision I could of made based on my goal of cashing for that day, but once I start to focus on winning and not cashing, I'll make that call everytime.
I later played two small 5 dollar sit and gos. I usually cash in one and lose in the other breaking me even or a bit ahead. I lost one with a bad all in with pocket 10s which ran into Jacks. The other I did very well and got 2nd (but was close to getting first when I was heads up.) It paid just a little more than I paid to play both sit and gos and I called it a night. Mark, who has been playing exceptional poker, and at stakes I am not yet at, was so close to winning yet another $650 WSOP table. (If you win you can play your 650 to win a seat at the WSOP or use the 650 to play other tournaments.) He played great, but was hurt late by having a smaller full house. He finished one place out of the money. That is always hard.
I have some new poker books. My goal is to read as much as I can on the subject so that I can start to really understand it. I've been playing for a long time now and I'd like to play more seriously in the future. My best approach is to study it as if it were a class and build a soild game. I don't want to be the World Series of Poker Champ, nor even play there. I just want to be able to play online or in a casino and know that odds are that I'm going to do well. If anything is worth doing, its worth doing well people say. I don't feel I follow this even though I do believe this. I hope to follow this when it comes to this game. I do admit, I get really bored sitting there for hours playing a limited set of starting hands, and I am not at the level where I can use that time to understand my opponents, but I'm getting a little better each day, and then I get a lot worse, start over and get a little better each day.
father
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