I've been playing some donkey cards lately. At the start of this month I did some poker reading and other training trying to add a level to my game. If one thing's for sure, it's that trying this stuff has screwed up my flow at the tables. I'm forcing things too much and getting away from what's made me a successful cash game player.Or I should say, this keeps happening at the start of my sessions. Then I reach a point, usually a couple buy-ins deep, where I say to myself, "Okay, screw this! Let me just play my game." And then I calm down and begin the long road back to a winning session.
So over the last 25 hours of live action poker, I'm up $100. I'm also up another $250 over about 9 hours playing on Intertops.
My last session at Monte Carlo went for 17 hours and netted a $10 blockbuster win. It started out a full-blown Hellmuth-meets-Hieronymus Bosch nightmare. Todd joked that there was a sign over my head that said, "Play back at me!" Pretty much every time I raised preflop and bet the flop, I got checkraised. I was quickly down $600. So I'm not running so good right now but at least I am winning.
And I think about Todd's session and how he played 20 hours and didn't quite get even and left straight from the poker room to drive 90 mph to Phoenix. And I think of the thin old man in the sailor hat who was sitting next to me at the Monte Carlo. He never spoke. Even when asked a direct quesiton by another player, he stonewalled him. He didn't even look up to acknowledge the other guy. After a while the Gamblin' Duke was openly asking people at the table what language they thought he spoke. The consensus was Finnish.
But the guy knew English. He was there, pretty obviously, to log hours for the freeroll tourney with the $50K first prize. Though with his supertight play embedded like code in his subconscious he has no chance in the tournament. He kept rebuying and I didn't really know what his deal was but it reminded me of something I read in "Shut Up and Deal" about casinos being places for lonely people.
3 comments:
For the record, the Finnish Fisherman did speak twice the second of which was best as he informed Highwaytime Mike an answer of "NO" when Mike asked if he wanted to chop. The guy grabbed his small blind and basically tossed it off Mike's chest as though to say. "If you speak to me again I will tear off your head and shit down your throat." I now realize how and why the action changes when I am at the table with you. It is simple, I know I have to play a little different of a style with you at the table, cause it is hard for use both, to play super tight, at the same time. If I am in a situation where we are at the same table and I need to play super tight, I will either table change or go to another room. I think you do need to stick to your game, players end up giving you a lot of respect for hands even when you don't have one, but if you come out firing after a little while players do seem to think they can play back and you are willing to dump your hand. Some agression is good, but I think you should use your preflop action to get certain players in hads with you, after all you have always had a nack for getting the calling station to hate money whenevr he is in a pot with you. So keep that focus. This session was fun, but very trying on all of us, although I was the big winner, I thought it was good, that you switched gears to play 'Your Game' when I sat at your table.
Okay I have rambled on, kick some ass, take some names and don't forget to watch for the New Transformers Movie Where Chuck Norris stars as himself "The Leader of the Decepticons."
THE GAMBLIN DUKE
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