Poker Question

I had someone ask me this question the other day and I'm sure we've all thought this type of question before, so I figured I'd put it up along with my thoughts.
(player) Hey, I have been looking at my play for the week and was wondering. When your playing in tournaments. I have had this same situation happen all week. Early stages in the tourney before any antes start. Mainly like blinds are 50-100 some where around there. You pick up AK the betting gets crazy before it even gets to you. Do you consider the following things in making the decision.

1. - The way you have been running - This should never come into your mind before making any decesions. This sound like the tilt talking. We (poker players) will always have some bad runs, but we can't let any past beats haunt us into bad play.
2. - The ratio to how many times that day you seen that hand get crushed. - This also should never come into your mind before making any decesions. This sounds like another tilt question.I think sometimes the hardest part of this game can be maintaining composure when things don't go your way. Bad Beats can really break people down, and turn an A player into a C player FAST... the underlying question here isn't how long until the cards turn around, but I think moreso how does this player compensate for variance and handle themselves mentally.

There are many ways that poker players can go about handling variance/maintaining composure/pushing thru that "poker sludge", and I'd be happy to hear some! Chime in because I know we've all been here!

I will open up by saying, I will walk away from the game for a few days if I'm running bad and I feel my composure slipping... During that time I'll read a poker book, blog, play Wii and I usually feel refreshed mentally and anxious to get back at it!

Back on the grind...

Well, finally had day I could commit to poker. Felt good to sit back down and just focus on it. After a little over 12 hrs of grinding MTT's below is how the 1st full day back went... including 7 non-cashes, and 7 cashes.

30061627 21-Dec-10 03:00 NL Holdem   $5 R     28/218        $9.78
30061627 21-Dec-10 03:00 NL Holdem   $10 R     2/138        $498.23
30061277 21-Dec-10 01:30 NL Holdem   $20       18/171        $12.20
30060508 21-Dec-10 00:30 NL Holdem   $15       28/123       -$16.50
30060850 21-Dec-10 00:00 NL Holdem   $10 R     7/196        $142.43
30206063 20-Dec-10 19:00 NL Holdem   $1 R     62/149       -$2.54
30053953 20-Dec-10 18:30 NL Holdem   $10        3/214         $181.60
30224587 20-Dec-10 18:28 NL Holdem   $10         1/10           $9.20
30202559 20-Dec-10 18:05 NL Holdem   $3         32/60          -$3.30
30220442 20-Dec-10 17:56 NL Holdem   $2         26/28          -$2.20
30050275 20-Dec-10 16:30 NL Holdem   $15       55/104        -$16.50
30202258 20-Dec-10 16:15 NL Holdem   $1 R      45/159        -$2.01
30220367 20-Dec-10 15:59 NL Holdem   $2         10/12          -$2.20
30047818 20-Dec-10 15:00 NL Holdem   $3 R      8/242          $48.68
-----------
+ $856.87


There were some unfortunate busts which could have made this day the bomb, BUT that's poker... I don't think it was that bad of a day. Hoping tomorrow is better for me, and whoever is reading this! Thoughts?

The Right time to play Poker...

Being poker players we've all tried to squeeze in that "1 more game" during busy times, or gone late to somewhere you should have been already... had you not been introduced to poker in college or by a friend, you probably would have been there on time! haha... it is what it is. We've all done it, and not really felt bad about it either .
Now, when poker becomes your life you gotta make sure you are always setting yourself up for success, giving yourself an adequate amount of time to play and not worry about any other commitments. I've found that there are commonly overlooked (and most of the time small things) aspects of the game that can distinguish a successful poker player from an average one... This idea of leaving time, being clear of mind, and knowing the benefits of them has led me to the better path.
SOOOOOOOO, if you've read my earlier blogs you know I haven't been playing my regular schedule because of moving, holidays, wedding (in winter? - I know), and some traveling mixed in as well.
You're probably asking if there is a bigger point to this, and there is!!!
This all leads into the list of video games I have beaten in the last 3 weeks!!! Hey, you can play a video game for 5 seconds and pause it until later, unlike poker! What a great substitute!!!!!!!

Here they are:

Legend of Zelda - Regular NES
The Adventures of Link - Regular NES
Metroid - Regular NES
Mega Man 4 - Regular NES
Halo 2 - Xbox 360 (Also done some slayer on this too, if you know the game)

So there was a little information regarding poker in here to take, but come on... who isn't taken back to being a kid when you hear some of these games?

Carbon Poker Tourney King - November

Haven't been playing much still, but can't pass up $4.5k potential in Freerolls!!! Carbon does a high limit leaderboard and low limit leaderboard final where winners of the high limit can win $3k, and low limit is $1.5k. Cashed in them a few times but have been falling short of the final table for whatever reasons...

The Reasons:

HIGH LIMIT - 3 way all in pot for about 12k in chips. AA (me) vs KK vs JJ... Flop all rags... turn nothing... river K. CYA DREW! BB was only 300, so 12k would be a nice stack to compete with. Oh well, I guess that's poker! No prize for these busted Aces...

LOW LIMIT - Was down to the last 2 tables. Sitting at about 10 bb's. Got some isolation to a shorter stack, 88 to kj. The shorter stack ended up catching a 1 card flush to cripple me. 2 hands later I got dealt QQ, so of course with 2 bb's I'm all in... Only to see insane action behind me! 4 people all in AA, AK, KQ, and My Measley QQ. THe main pot ensured the new chipleader (by almost 2x the 2nd stack). Anyway, case A comes out for huge boat and the new chipleader. Rewarding Drew with a Sunday 50k Coupon... better than nothing right?

WPT Seat

Wish I woulda played in the WPT Five Diamond Classic... Looks like it woulda been fun. What would you do if you were given $10k for a seat... take the cash or play? Tough...

Poker Poker Poker

Well it's been roughly 8 months since I've been playing poker full time. It's been very good, but always has it's ups and downs. I haven't been playing much lately because I'll be moving to a different part of town into a new home. Lots of things in life aren't planned, but sometimes (like in poker) you just have to go with your gut and jump on certain opportunities so that is why I'm moving. I hope to be back playing my full schedule sooner than later. Hopefully this small break will help get past the recent run of bad luck I've been in. Good luck to everyone.