I have decided that I need to really take a look at my life and make changes to make me a more positive person. I purchased some books from Amazon that I think will help and they arrived today. Here is the list of books I purchased;
Zen and the Art of Poker
The Poker Mindset, Essential Attitudes for Poker Success
Zen and the art of Happiness
The Three Pillars of Zen Teaching Practice and Enlightenment
The first two books are obviously poker related but the last two are not, and that is because I have recently realized that I am a negative person in most aspects of my life. I am not sure if my life would be better if I was more positive but it can't hurt to take a look. I do have a semi large ego and I really have to remove that if I want to be better at all things. I was telling myself that I would just deposit to keep myself at 25NL because I didn't want to play 10NL. That is ego talking, so I have moved down in an effort to work on removing ego from my game.
I have played two sessions at 10NL and have done pretty well. It is a small sample but hopefully it will continue. I make decent money and don't have to make money playing poker, making the right play and being patient is way more important. Don't get me wrong money is how you keep score, but I am trying to look at things in a broader way. Was I ahead when the money went in? Would my play win money in the long run or was it stubborn? How could I have won more money with this hand/how could I have lost less?
This includes going against some well known poker wisdom and might get me flamed when I post a hand. These days there are less and less people with no knowledge of poker thanks to the U.S. government. As you move up you will find even less and less people who are unaware. So while most of the time against a donkey I would bet flop turn and river with a set, against a better opponent I need to look for an opportunity to check if it will get me more value. If everyone is reading the same forums and watching the same videos they are all using the same knowledge and I think there are less and less people playing their own game and instead just trying to use what they were shown in videos. Playing outside the box is going to be the best way to make money in the long run.
That being said I am not going crazy at 10NL trying to play this way. I am playing tight and not bluffing much because it is not efficient. I think that up until 50NL you can play super tight ABC poker and just fold post flop when your raised and have a decent win rate. I am however looking for opportunities to apply concepts even though I am not using them at this level.
Enough about poker, onto other things.
We are in December and it is going to be crazy at work. I am more than a little frustrated about how scheduling is being handled. AT&T is very union based and everything there is based upon seniority except for me. Since I am a floater apparently I have no call what so ever in my schedule. So I get to close EVERY night that I work except for two. I will not be participating in Christmas get-togethers because I will be working.
I have tried talking with management about how unfair this is and so on and its like pissing into the wind. I have given up, I am pretty burned out and its only been 6 months. I guess since I have decided that moving into management with this company is not the way that I want to go it is hard to really keep myself motivated. Then again it could be part of my mindset. The goal for next year is to have a job that is not retail so I get to really enjoy the holiday season instead of getting hammered by it. I am not sure what kind of job I am looking for but I think I will know it when I find it.
Thanksgiving was last week and we went to Melissa's Mother's house for lunch with her family. The plan was to come home hang out for a bit then go to my Mom's house but it never happened. They didn't cook or anything so it is not a huge deal though, they just wanted me to come over to fix the DVD player.
I guess that is it, Kung-Fu is going well and I am learning stick defenses and that is pretty cool. My elbow is still giving me some problems but I am going to try to tough it out a little while longer, if it gives me serious issues then I will take a break from Kung-Fu.
I am going to play a session and then do some reading.
Until Later.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Overly Invested?
I remember a time when I played 5/10 limit poker and crushed. I was making 1k a week and it was just awesome. I had no concept of bankroll management or fold equity or reverse implied odds. I just played, thought I knew what I was doing and I loved it. I still love the concept of poker, I like the idea of being able to make money at it, which is not happening at this moment, and the concepts. Every little pot I lose pisses me off though. I played 500 hands tonight and lost two buy ins, well I lost one and donk/tilted off the other one. It puts me in a terrible mood for the rest of the day and just sucks.
http://weaktight.com/544125
For example this hand really pissed me off. It isn't even a full stack but it still pisses me off. I know that you cant be results oriented and blah blah blah. Bullshit at one level or another everyone is results oriented or else we wouldn't be playing. No one can look at my graphs and not be frustrated. I would be a winning player, all be it a small one, if it wasn't for all the bullshit. The three outers, the terrible plays that idiots make and they don't even know why.
How does one get back to a point where poker is enjoyable, where it is not a fucking beating every time I sit down and open up my Hold'em Manager? I pray for break-even stretches. Every time I make a continuation bet I cringe knowing that the check raise is coming. I sit down and play and do reasonably well and then look at my stats and I see wow I haven't won shit. I would gladly give it all up if tomorrow I could go on a run and make all the money back and break even. I would say fuck it and happily uninstall every poker related thing on my computer. I love poker in the pure form, but really hate the nightmare it has me in currently.
The job is making things worse, the next month I am being split between two different stores. I work 3 days at one store and 2 at the other. I get no choice in my schedule and it is fucking lame. They are setting me up for failure, I can't build any repeat business because people don't know where I will be, fuck I don't even know where I will be.
Thanksgiving Is this week and I don't think I could be less excited about it if I worked at it. Holidays now are just about scheduling meals between the drives from Melissa's mom's house to my mom's house. Then I get to work 12 hour shifts on Friday and Saturday. The serious goal for next year...NOT WORK RETAIL. I want a job where you get Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving.
I really should be in bed I have to go to a fucking work meeting tomorrow at 7:30. Yes, that is right 7:30 when the stores open at 10. The day before Thanksgiving we have a meeting for some really lame bullshit. I know if I lay down I will just lay there and not sleep. I really just want to open up 9 tables and play myself into oblivion, either robusto or busto, it doesn't really matter too much at this point I guess. I mean it is pretty safe to assume that it wont be robusto.
All of this is taking a toll on my relationship with Melissa too. I am in such a shitty mood most of the time, I am not really ever in the mood to have relations. It is really pretty terrible that all of this shit is ruining everything else.
I guess I am done bitching for now, look for more later
Until later.
http://weaktight.com/544125
For example this hand really pissed me off. It isn't even a full stack but it still pisses me off. I know that you cant be results oriented and blah blah blah. Bullshit at one level or another everyone is results oriented or else we wouldn't be playing. No one can look at my graphs and not be frustrated. I would be a winning player, all be it a small one, if it wasn't for all the bullshit. The three outers, the terrible plays that idiots make and they don't even know why.
How does one get back to a point where poker is enjoyable, where it is not a fucking beating every time I sit down and open up my Hold'em Manager? I pray for break-even stretches. Every time I make a continuation bet I cringe knowing that the check raise is coming. I sit down and play and do reasonably well and then look at my stats and I see wow I haven't won shit. I would gladly give it all up if tomorrow I could go on a run and make all the money back and break even. I would say fuck it and happily uninstall every poker related thing on my computer. I love poker in the pure form, but really hate the nightmare it has me in currently.
The job is making things worse, the next month I am being split between two different stores. I work 3 days at one store and 2 at the other. I get no choice in my schedule and it is fucking lame. They are setting me up for failure, I can't build any repeat business because people don't know where I will be, fuck I don't even know where I will be.
Thanksgiving Is this week and I don't think I could be less excited about it if I worked at it. Holidays now are just about scheduling meals between the drives from Melissa's mom's house to my mom's house. Then I get to work 12 hour shifts on Friday and Saturday. The serious goal for next year...NOT WORK RETAIL. I want a job where you get Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving.
I really should be in bed I have to go to a fucking work meeting tomorrow at 7:30. Yes, that is right 7:30 when the stores open at 10. The day before Thanksgiving we have a meeting for some really lame bullshit. I know if I lay down I will just lay there and not sleep. I really just want to open up 9 tables and play myself into oblivion, either robusto or busto, it doesn't really matter too much at this point I guess. I mean it is pretty safe to assume that it wont be robusto.
All of this is taking a toll on my relationship with Melissa too. I am in such a shitty mood most of the time, I am not really ever in the mood to have relations. It is really pretty terrible that all of this shit is ruining everything else.
I guess I am done bitching for now, look for more later
Until later.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
A few hands and some kung fu
I haven't been playing much the past few days because I took a Kung-Fu test this morning and was trying to gear up for that to make sure that I was ready for it. I was thinking about it and it has been close to a year since I have tested. I felt pretty prepared and it helped that I have known about it for 2 months. I am really ready to get on to some new things, I am not sure what I will be learning at this new level. Before now there were always things that I had seen other people doing at higher levels that I would look forward to and I haven't really seen much so far.
The test it self went pretty well I only had one big mess up and it had to do with a stepping pattern that is pretty funky if you don't have someone to do it against. It is called a Chong ma, describing it is weird but it is an aggressive bracing step and it is effective. Other than that it went pretty smooth there were a lot of junior students testing so I really didn't have to do much, stepping patterns, forms, some chi-sao drills and the triangle at the end. The triangle is what I was most worried about but it went pretty well, Sifu called it pretty quick so I didn't have much time.
Melissa was there and she took the new camera but because of how Sifu does the seating at the new school it is hard to video from most angles. Oh well, maybe next time. Chad came and brought Michelle his girl friend so that was cool, Pops and Kate were going to come but I guess Dad had a bit of anti-socialness kick in this morning because they didn't come. That kind of sucks because Kate hasn't been to any of my tests and she wants to see one pretty bad.
Work has been really getting to me lately, I have been getting really irritated about it and it was really affecting me outside of work. I decided to take a step back and decided to just let it flow, I can't control how many customers come in or what they are going to want to buy. I have better things to worry about than that kind of shit. I tend to nit-pick jobs and I am really trying not to with AT&T but it can be kind of difficult. I am making good money so I am going to pay off all my shit and then take a look and see where I am.
Now for poker; my last few sessions have been winners and that is good but I still have ground to make up. I have really been trying to break down my play and try to build up. A friend of mine sent me a post and told me to read it and I would find why I am not really crushing. I read it and it is so true, emotional control is my biggest leak. I am a huge Tilt-tard and it is something that I need to really work on. I am not sure the best way to work on it but I can't let a beat cause me to play terrible for the rest of my session. Link to the post is here, scroll down to post 37 and that is the meat of it. This guy is incredible and hopefully I can come up with something to turn me around.
Here are a few hands I played today that I found pretty interesting.
http://weaktight.com/535661
This was a hand that was pretty interesting. I don't mind my flat preflop because I have found that people stack off a little lighter in this kind of situation. In this hand the outcome is the same since he has KK and I have AA. The king on the flop really doesn't bother me because I feel that he plays AK the exact same way also I win a little bit more when I raise his Cbet and then folds if he has nothing. I got lucky on the river finally.
http://weaktight.com/535664
This hand was pretty standard I guess. I know that I am not supposed to be folding KK preflop for 100BBs but I knew I was getting it in vs AA here. I am finding that at this level people are not going nuts with AK or QQ preflop like this. Hopefully soon I will get to a level where people are a little more aggro and getting it in with KK preflop isn't always vs. AA
http://weaktight.com/535667
This was just a cooler. Stacks are a little weird because he is playing short, I knew when he snap called that he had T9, I was hoping for the board to pair obv but no such luck. Not a huge deal just made a note about his terrible preflop call and moved on. I really think that is the key for me, just stop dwelling and move on.
The session was only like 525 hands everything else was pretty blah. It is 3AM and I need to go to bed.
Until later.
The test it self went pretty well I only had one big mess up and it had to do with a stepping pattern that is pretty funky if you don't have someone to do it against. It is called a Chong ma, describing it is weird but it is an aggressive bracing step and it is effective. Other than that it went pretty smooth there were a lot of junior students testing so I really didn't have to do much, stepping patterns, forms, some chi-sao drills and the triangle at the end. The triangle is what I was most worried about but it went pretty well, Sifu called it pretty quick so I didn't have much time.
Melissa was there and she took the new camera but because of how Sifu does the seating at the new school it is hard to video from most angles. Oh well, maybe next time. Chad came and brought Michelle his girl friend so that was cool, Pops and Kate were going to come but I guess Dad had a bit of anti-socialness kick in this morning because they didn't come. That kind of sucks because Kate hasn't been to any of my tests and she wants to see one pretty bad.
Work has been really getting to me lately, I have been getting really irritated about it and it was really affecting me outside of work. I decided to take a step back and decided to just let it flow, I can't control how many customers come in or what they are going to want to buy. I have better things to worry about than that kind of shit. I tend to nit-pick jobs and I am really trying not to with AT&T but it can be kind of difficult. I am making good money so I am going to pay off all my shit and then take a look and see where I am.
Now for poker; my last few sessions have been winners and that is good but I still have ground to make up. I have really been trying to break down my play and try to build up. A friend of mine sent me a post and told me to read it and I would find why I am not really crushing. I read it and it is so true, emotional control is my biggest leak. I am a huge Tilt-tard and it is something that I need to really work on. I am not sure the best way to work on it but I can't let a beat cause me to play terrible for the rest of my session. Link to the post is here, scroll down to post 37 and that is the meat of it. This guy is incredible and hopefully I can come up with something to turn me around.
Here are a few hands I played today that I found pretty interesting.
http://weaktight.com/535661
This was a hand that was pretty interesting. I don't mind my flat preflop because I have found that people stack off a little lighter in this kind of situation. In this hand the outcome is the same since he has KK and I have AA. The king on the flop really doesn't bother me because I feel that he plays AK the exact same way also I win a little bit more when I raise his Cbet and then folds if he has nothing. I got lucky on the river finally.
http://weaktight.com/535664
This hand was pretty standard I guess. I know that I am not supposed to be folding KK preflop for 100BBs but I knew I was getting it in vs AA here. I am finding that at this level people are not going nuts with AK or QQ preflop like this. Hopefully soon I will get to a level where people are a little more aggro and getting it in with KK preflop isn't always vs. AA
http://weaktight.com/535667
This was just a cooler. Stacks are a little weird because he is playing short, I knew when he snap called that he had T9, I was hoping for the board to pair obv but no such luck. Not a huge deal just made a note about his terrible preflop call and moved on. I really think that is the key for me, just stop dwelling and move on.
The session was only like 525 hands everything else was pretty blah. It is 3AM and I need to go to bed.
Until later.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
updates and other stuff
Poker is going meh, I don't even want to talk about it. I still don't get why i am losing but whatever.
I bought a new camera and I have been playing with that a lot. It is pretty cool.
I was supposed to have a bunch of customers come in to activate new lines of service today and none of them showed up. I was talking about luck of the draw and how heavy it plays into this job. This guy comes out and says that its not luck and he just is a better sales man. This idiot was standing at the door and the first person he spoke with says I want to activate a line. It is not like anyone is really going to great depths to sell here, people come up and say what they want. It really pissed me off. I get stuck with long drawn out bullshit and he gets two new lines.
I am really tired of a lot of things that are happening at work. I might start looking here soon, we will see what happens.
That is really it for now, I test next Saturday so that will be cool.
Until Later
I bought a new camera and I have been playing with that a lot. It is pretty cool.
I was supposed to have a bunch of customers come in to activate new lines of service today and none of them showed up. I was talking about luck of the draw and how heavy it plays into this job. This guy comes out and says that its not luck and he just is a better sales man. This idiot was standing at the door and the first person he spoke with says I want to activate a line. It is not like anyone is really going to great depths to sell here, people come up and say what they want. It really pissed me off. I get stuck with long drawn out bullshit and he gets two new lines.
I am really tired of a lot of things that are happening at work. I might start looking here soon, we will see what happens.
That is really it for now, I test next Saturday so that will be cool.
Until Later
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Just kidding
I am a glutton for punishment. I have been playing and still running like shit. I swear to god eventually I will stop having the worst fucking luck on the planet.
Piece of shit luck boxes. I really just want to have a long break even stretch.
Piece of shit luck boxes. I really just want to have a long break even stretch.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
I am beyond done with the bullshit.
I have said it before but it is the real deal this time. I am done with it. I cant fucking win so I give up.
These are some sick hands I have played that illustrate the fact that I cant win at poker.
http://weaktight.com/505695 who fucking 3 bets with 88 in position...guy was 15/11
http://weaktight.com/505696 just fucking annoying
http://weaktight.com/505697 nothing to say here
These are some sick hands I have played that illustrate the fact that I cant win at poker.
http://weaktight.com/505695 who fucking 3 bets with 88 in position...guy was 15/11
http://weaktight.com/505696 just fucking annoying
http://weaktight.com/505697 nothing to say here
Thursday, October 23, 2008
fuck poker
So this month has been terrible. I have done two sessions of coaching and still cant get it right or i am just running terrible. I dont think its all running bad. If I play a draw fast I get told to play it slow and vice versa. I am fucking done with it for at least a little while. No fucking reason that I have played for as long as i have and still cant beat fucking online retards. I ma tired of wasting my life and money trying to be good at this when it seems this fucking impossible.
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