A bit of space-filler for the bean counters, or the casually curious out there.
To date on this trip, I've played $5,100 of events, and have cashed for £2,380. Neither outstanding nor terrible but of course always nice to get some scratch on the board, and remind myself I'm generally doing the right thing. Another $11,500 is already put aside as 2 other WSOP events are already bought and paid for.
For this trip, though not every hand is always 100% documented (I do still have to play after all), I can easily tell in myself that I've definitely loosened up a bit as regards seeing extra streets, and putting the onus back onto the other player to make the difficult decisions, which should always be the goal in poker, and not merely in tournaments. The money side of it to me is never a big factor. If you start thinking about the amount for which you've bought in, then it can easily affect your judgement, when in reality in the purest sense poker should just be poker, and the buy-in should be considered gone, until you turn it into something bigger. Having said that, in contradiction, it's not always totally the case. Level one of the $10K main event, facing a preflop all-in when you have KK is an easy fold for me(the kids will mostly disagree, which is why largely they will all be out pretty quickly), whereas in most other events here, it's an easy call/re-shove generally. To me the structure always plays a huge part, and in the main, the structure doesn't come any better. On a slow clock with a decent stack, you get multiple opportunities to chip away (no pun intended) with all sorts of hands to build and accumulate, but in the quicker events sometimes the bigger preflop hands like QQ, KK, AK, and AQ just have a way of often playing themselves.
To date on this trip, I've played $5,100 of events, and have cashed for £2,380. Neither outstanding nor terrible but of course always nice to get some scratch on the board, and remind myself I'm generally doing the right thing. Another $11,500 is already put aside as 2 other WSOP events are already bought and paid for.
For this trip, though not every hand is always 100% documented (I do still have to play after all), I can easily tell in myself that I've definitely loosened up a bit as regards seeing extra streets, and putting the onus back onto the other player to make the difficult decisions, which should always be the goal in poker, and not merely in tournaments. The money side of it to me is never a big factor. If you start thinking about the amount for which you've bought in, then it can easily affect your judgement, when in reality in the purest sense poker should just be poker, and the buy-in should be considered gone, until you turn it into something bigger. Having said that, in contradiction, it's not always totally the case. Level one of the $10K main event, facing a preflop all-in when you have KK is an easy fold for me(the kids will mostly disagree, which is why largely they will all be out pretty quickly), whereas in most other events here, it's an easy call/re-shove generally. To me the structure always plays a huge part, and in the main, the structure doesn't come any better. On a slow clock with a decent stack, you get multiple opportunities to chip away (no pun intended) with all sorts of hands to build and accumulate, but in the quicker events sometimes the bigger preflop hands like QQ, KK, AK, and AQ just have a way of often playing themselves.
In myself, I'm feeling occasionally tired, but great in general. Whilst there is certainly time to relax a bit (when I bust), the heat, the atmosphere, the diet (delicious but hardly the most healthy), and the long hours can be pretty gruelling, so it's important to recharge and take your down time whenever you can. I'm lucky to have some very good friends that live in town, and I get to visit, hang, or sometimes even stay with them at times, which is good for normalising the utter madness that is Las Vegas during the WSOP. Having said that, it's not always cocktails, laughs, and poolside relaxation. Just as they are nearly always around for me, sometimes your friends may also need you, for anything from a chat, to emotional support, to helping with day to day stuff, right through to just being there and letting them know that you have their back. That might sound a bit mysterious, or hokey, but I guess what I'm simply saying is that not everyone is always having the great time it might appear on the outside. Try to be kind, and don't be an asshole, as you never know what they might actually be going through behind the scenes.
Without becoming an old hippy, I try quite hard here to get a bit of life/poker balance. In the middle of a blistering Nevada Summer, generally it's way too hot to play golf, so that's out, even though I have my own set of clubs here. I'm a regular at Trufusion, and I try to do hot Yoga classes or similar at least once every couple of days. The people are very cool, in general the antithesis of most poker players, and the exercise and atmosphere is great for setting your mind right and staving off any negativity that creeps in if left unchecked. I tried a fly gym class today just to be different. Think yoga but on a low trapeze type sling. Not sure I was quite as graceful or controlled as when I'm doing my more familiar Yin, but it was still a good experience and I'll try it again in the future. The pic above, gender notwithstanding, is probably the polar opposite of how I actually looked whilst attempting it. Aside from that, trips to the movies, swimming, meals in and out with friends, rest, keeping in touch with family. The standard stuff of life, all of which largely makes it better. I'm lucky here that so many of my friends have dogs, and dogs always make life good, even when today one tried to bite me on the nose as he didn't know me (we're friends now, it's all good).
I likely have another 6 events or so to play on this trip. Tomorrow's is the Venetian $600 Monster Stack with $750K guaranteed. I'm hoping to dig in for a long day there. I could fire another shell at it if needed, but we'll see how the day unfolds. I feel like I'm in a good place poker wise, and am getting psyched to be playing in the $10K main for the first time in a few years due to work commitments. The main is for me (and I hope for everyone with a share) the primary goal on this trip, but of course there's plenty of other poker to be played before I ship back to the UK. As long as I'm feeling good and playing well, that's all that's needed. The rest will unfold the way it's meant to, but I'm here, and I'm playing, and that's the main thing.
RSS Feed