Taking a Break (Again)

I've decided to take a two or three week poker break. I probably won't last that long, but I need to give it a try. My game is just "off" lately and I'm not sure why.

I talked about this with a friend and co-worker who had an interesting analogy. She likens our brain neuro pathways to a nice straight road. When we start to think about something too much or try too hard to do something right, our nice straight road ends up with a hole in it. Over time, this hole grows to become a rather large ditch, thus making it quite difficult to just keep moseying down the road. We have to climb down into the ditch and struggle up the other side and it's just a lot of work. We get worn out. We get irritable. We are "off".

As we stop trying too hard or thinking too much about something, the ditch suddenly starts to begin filling up again and the road becomes a lot easier to travel. I really like thinking about it this way. So, I am going to stop struggling in and out of that ditch for a little while and let my road flatten out a little. I think I'll watch a bunch of baseball!

Dazed and Confused (not the Led Zeppelin song)

I got knocked out of the $60 Moose Sunday tournament in 6th place and they only paid 3 places at that point as no deals had yet been made. Was it my own fault? You decide. Blinds were 1,000-2,000. I only had 11 big blinds or 22,000. The chip leader was Tall Jeff with over 50,000. Unknown Guy went all-in for 8,500. Everyone folded to Tall Jeff on my immediate right. He called. My thought process was that if he had a great hand or even a medium pocket pair he would raise to isolate. He didn't do that so when I looked down at pocket queens I moved all-in over the top, hoping to isolate also. Tall Jeff insta-called with A-J. His called confused me for 3 main reasons. First, I would think that he would know that I had to have a super good hand if I was going to move all-in. Second, he called off half his remaining chips without even thinking about it and he was chip leader and didn't need to do that. Third, it was a crappy hand to insta-call with. He was beat pre-flop if I had AQ, AK or any pocket pair. Naturally, there was an ace right in the door on the flop and yours truly was history. Was I wrong to move all-in? Hindsight tells me that I could have simply called and still had 6 big blinds left, but I think I did the right thing. Was Jeff wrong? I think so. What do you think?

Tooting My Own Horn

This is my pat on the back for the past month. The Island had a ladies only tournmant last year, but they stopped it in December. After many requests, they restarted on Thursday nights 4 weeks ago with a couple of changes. The cost went from $20 to $25 and antes have been added starting at the 200-400 level. We still start with 3,000 in chips and blind rounds are 15 minutes. The first week I placed 2nd. The second week I busted out of the money holding aces when I moved all-in on a jack high board. My opponent had a set of 10s. Phooey. The third week I placed second again. Last week I won! So, in 4 weeks, I have cashed 1st or 2nd 3 times. I may just play ladies only tournaments from now on! Wish me luck on the 14th - week 5. This is not a lot of money after buy-ins and tips, but I still have a $415 profit. I am not complaining. :)

What Was I Thinking?

Sometimes, I think I will never learn anything. I was playing in the deep stack tournament at the Islands last night and doing pretty well. I had been reading hands and people OK and had a decent (but not great) chip stack of just over 100,000 with blinds of 3000-6000 (17 big blinds). There were 2 tables left. I was in the big blind for 6000. The player to my immediate left limped under the gun. I think everyone folded to Bobby Petty on my immediate right. Bobby had gone on a recent tear and had at least 175,000. He raised all-in. I found K-K in my hand and WITHOUT THINKING AT ALL pushed all in as well. BIG MISTAKE. In hindsight, I honestly believe that I could have folded my kings pre-flop if I had given one second's thought to who had raised. This guy is the tightest rock on the planet, I kid you not. As soon as I pushed all in, I did not feel right about it. The limper folded, Bobby insta-called and had the dreaded aces and I was gone. To make matters worse he got an ace on the turn and I was drawing dead. It was so stupid. I don't think I'm ready for Pendleton. Gak!