If it don’t taste bitter to lose, it sure won’t taste that Sweet when winning!
November 27, 2007
Ok I am going to start off talking about poker just to be sure that I include it in this week’s blog entry. That said I think I am guilty of going on a bit, not sure if I knew where I was going with the post when I started hitting the keys.
I read Gophers blog recently, it is an old topic touched on before by all of us at one time or another. A good idea, there is still a lot of mileage in some of those older topics, in this case the apathy or lack-lustre attitude that can creep into your game. Gopher suggests getting back to basics and re-evaluating your game from the ground up.
Sound advice.
But, not for me, not this time. I know what my problem is with poker, it is not the suck-outs, the cold cards, the series of bad beats. It isn’t any of those things, it is simply boredom. Playing $5 SNG’s just bores the pants offa me! Unless I am cruising the games with fellow Skyper’s, then it doesn’t matter what the buy in stakes are, I am just playing and having fun with my online buds.
The potential pay out for these smaller SNG’s is clearly not enough to get my attention focused. You’d have to win an awful lot of those kind of games for it make a “difference”. But a first prize of $100 focuses your game a little more, right? It isn’t rocket science is it? Three, four, five wins at that level in a week can make a difference.
I mean ask yourselves this, how long have you been playing poker online, how long have you been playing at a competent level and how far up the buy in ladder have you moved in all that time? Yeah I know it got difficult for the USA players but there are ways and means these days, to fund your account.
I know people that have never deposited, running around with $50+ bank rolls, built up from free-roll winnings. Other guys I know fluctuate between a 100 dollars in the bank roll to a couple hundred in the bank roll. It seems everyone plateau’s off after a certain amount of time or when a certain figure is reached in the bankroll. A lot of the time these guys have been running around with the same bank roll for 2-3 years!
I have heard many players complain that their bankroll isn’t up to playing larger buy-ins. This is fair comment. Yet I would suggest their bank rolls could be if they keep sharply focused on all their games. Half the reason people plateau off at a certain bank roll size is because they continue to bounce around at the lower buy in levels even after they have the bank roll to move it on up.
No wonder it becomes monotonous, playing for hours to make that $7 profit for the night, and night after night, after night. Jaysus I would imagine bouncing around in bed with a certain Ms Jolie would get a bit same old, same old, if it were.. omg what am I saying! Strike that last line from the record!
My point is this, if you feel safe and secure swimming around in the lower buy-ins and your bank roll remains around the same over the year/s, then you can’t really complain. If you want to inject some passion back into your game, then put it out there, there is nothing like necessity for sharpening your senses. Sure you might get knocked back but then you are forced to play sharp to win back your bank roll, this is still preferable to swimming around in circles, not going anywhere, isn’t it?
Well it is for me, if it doesn’t sting when I lose then I know it isn’t gonna taste that sweet when I win.
Poker should NOT be about mediocrity, it should NOT be about ‘middle of the road’. I can get mediocrity and middle of the road any and everywhere else in life, anytime I want it. But when I play poker I want it to make me feel my heart beat, make my stomach turn over, push my blood pressure through the roof, make me want to drive my fist through the felt and make me punch my fist into the air.
I know I ain’t gonna get that by swimming around in the goldfish bowl of 2-5 dollar games. Perhaps if I couldn’t fund my account and found myself short I would get the same kicks from those lower games. But as I said earlier, nothing like necessity for sharpening up your senses is there?
A lot of the time we come online and if we have nothing better to do we play a game. Don’t do it! When you play online poker alone you want to be hungry and sharp, not laid back and ho-hum about it. The only time I play poker these days is when I really want to, not because I am cruising around online kicking my heels. Sure I’ll join my buds in any old game but that is different, that is for fun first and foremost. But you will not find me playing those lower buy in games on my own, heck if you do find me playing them then I have just had the worst losing streak ever and you can come poke fun at my predicament!
Life, The Universe and Everything Else?
I just spent a week over in Copenhagen, Denmark, with Anne Marie (GotMeWrong). Had a great time, I will not bore you with all the details, sight-seeing etc. Anne Marie did manage to set up a private game at her ex-college bar, where we both made it to the final table and the final four.
Was a fun night and Anne Marie did another of her “queens” tricks, short stacked she went all in blind and was called by 2 players. Flop comes Queen-rag rag- Turn Comes Queen – River comes rag. Anne Marie flips her cards over and shows? Yup you guessed it pocket Queens! She got her come-uppance shortly after this when she again drew pocket Queens and lost to a King on the board.
I started putting up some pictures from this years meet, they are linked in the right column under, erm pictures. Lol
Haven’t really done much else since getting back home just catching up on things, including 871 emails sitting waiting for me to sift through or not. Big football game tonight as Arsenal (here we go here we go here we gooOoo) play Sevilla (Spain) in the European Champions League. We (Arsenal) are group leaders and are all ready qualified for the knock out stages but it would be nice to finish off top of the group table, by beating the living daylights out of the Spaniards!
Anyhow.. be lucky and be brave .. yah never know, you might find yahself liking the ‘rush’. 
Comments
2 Responses to “If it don’t taste bitter to lose, it sure won’t taste that Sweet when winning!”
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Wow Paulie, excellent post. I am guilty as charged with that one.
The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. I goof around in the $6 SNG’s and get bored. Why? There is a very minimal risk for me. So, there is no challenge.
I am going to test your theory. One of these nights, I am going to psych myself up and commit some real cash and go after some better money. No Skype crew, no advertisement, just hunker down and play.
I am realistic enough to know that one game isn’t going to decide anything but I will be able to see if it gets the juices flowing again.
I think thats why I enjoyed the side bet earlier with Netty, Saturn, Oscar, etc. It wasn’t the game or the amount, it was the joy of the challenge.
Of course it was about 50% fun too because it was friends.
Now, the side bets don’t always have to be monetary. We could get some interesting things going which would make it VERY bad if you loose which can make it challenging for everyone.
I am glad to have you back posting. You always post well written, well thought out ideas and have a good insight.
I am having a very stressfull week so maybe I will see you later…
Take Care…
Think of some good side bets!
Kind words Dave thanks. Now I have to fret about people losing their bank rolls.
Side bets that are not monetary? hmmm..