Monday, August 15, 2005
All About Poker
For someone who plays cards as much as I do (every hour that is not consumed by working or sleeping), I don't blog about it often. Much like programming, hearing someone else talk about Texas Hold'em ad nauseum is kinda boring. So, I don't want to post victorious hand histories or give detailed accounts of my game-crushing all-ins, but I will discuss highlights.
My weekend of tournaments started on Friday. I had qualified for a Party Poker Million V Cruise satellite. Unfortunately, there were not enough players in this satellite, so it became a cash tournament. This bothered me, but Gus told me to just do my best so I can win money and buy into the next full satellite directly.
Good logic, but I ended up busting out about halfway through the damn thing, losing with a king-high flush to an ace-high flush. What are the odds? Who cares. I lost.
Then I went on to play another qualifier (they're very cheap) and a huge $30 buy-in tournament on Saturday. I placed 80th out of 900 in the latter and won a modest sum. The interesting thing about that experience is that two different people at different tables throughout the tournament felt the need to single me out and call me stupid regarding plays they didn't like. I wasn't surprised by their audacity—people will say just about anything behind the safety of their computer screen. I just thought it was funny that these two complete strangers thought it would be in some way helpful to criticize my game so vehemently, and then bust out before the payouts.
If my play is stupid, why would you want to tell me? When the L.A. Lakers play the Miami Heat, does Kobe lecture Shaq on how to improve his lay-up? No, because they're opponents. Rather than wasting their time belittling each other, they focus their energy on out-playing each other.
In addition, why are these fabulous poker players/consultants entering cheap weekend online tournaments when the World Poker Tour is in full swing? Sick of all the fame and fortune of playing professionally? Or maybe they're just poor, pathetic fucks with nothing better to do on a Saturday. Unless you're Annie Duke, Phil Ivey, or a one of a small final table of my favorite professional players, you really have no business giving unsolicited advice.
On Sunday, I played a couple more tournaments. In my 3-table, $30 buy-in no-limit tournament, I was at a friendly, chatty table. Midway through the round, one of the players announced that she was "playing in disguise," having chosen a male avatar even though she is female. She said she did that so guys would stay off her case. I remembered the name-calling from the day before and wondered how much that actually had to do with my being a woman. I doubt I took the criticisms any different than a man would have, and I'm still completely unclear as to the offender's expected result.
Anyway, I won that tournament, which was nice. After all the big tournaments I had entered, it was like running a 5K after training for a marathon.
Still, I had a lingering problem. Lately I've been winning money in tournaments, but I've been losing money playing limit. I needed to work on playing a more sensible limit game. So I spent the remainder of last night hounding a $2/4 limit table. After a significant time investment, I came out ahead. This was good for my bankroll but even better for my ego... because when I'm on tilt, that's what really takes a beating.
I think I've pontificated on poker enough for awhile... Hooray for Vikings and Monday morning bagels!
GIS for Viking
