New books and other randomness

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.