In praise of [my] mediocrity...
It has happened.
After playing numerous [see previous posts on my lack of specifics] SNGs the month of May, whilst actually making an effort to understand and tame my self-destructive/masochistic tendencies, I reached the Zero Hour.
I have officially returned to dollar one. I took some time today and did a little math.
After a $1246 Oddyssey - complete with sirens, the occasional one-eyed bandit, a girl named Calypso, and sundry other villains and nobles, I found the shores of Ithaca. There are, no doubt, easier ways to learn the basics of NLHE, but this 6 month money pit has been interesting to say the least. For the first time in recent memory I have been repeatedly in situations where all kinds of people - perfect strangers - took every opportunity to point out what an idiot I am. I have been called every possible permutation of animal porn fetishist you can imagine in these travels. It has been humbling and useful to have developed a hobby where I am not someone deferred to or looked to for wisdom, but instead looked to and counted on for +EV and poor decision making. Its actually fun to be the person without a clue, and often without a chance. No expectations (including my own) = No pressure to perform, which for me is a welcome enough change from reality that it could keep me playing poker for the rest of my life.
Nonetheless, I must have improved somewhat because this afternoon (what a degenerate - gambling on Mothers Day!] I placed 2nd in a 6X33 and made it officially back to $In=$Out. Well except for the hundreds of manhours spent spinning in this giant circle, time I probably shouldve been spending with any or all of my 3 kids...And of course allowing that variance might mean I'm still as terrible as I ever was...
Food for thought, but for now I smile and celebrate the simplicity and insanity of nothing accomplished, but nothing owed.
Horatio Alger once noted success is just around the corner, and who am I to argue with that.
After playing numerous [see previous posts on my lack of specifics] SNGs the month of May, whilst actually making an effort to understand and tame my self-destructive/masochistic tendencies, I reached the Zero Hour.
I have officially returned to dollar one. I took some time today and did a little math.
After a $1246 Oddyssey - complete with sirens, the occasional one-eyed bandit, a girl named Calypso, and sundry other villains and nobles, I found the shores of Ithaca. There are, no doubt, easier ways to learn the basics of NLHE, but this 6 month money pit has been interesting to say the least. For the first time in recent memory I have been repeatedly in situations where all kinds of people - perfect strangers - took every opportunity to point out what an idiot I am. I have been called every possible permutation of animal porn fetishist you can imagine in these travels. It has been humbling and useful to have developed a hobby where I am not someone deferred to or looked to for wisdom, but instead looked to and counted on for +EV and poor decision making. Its actually fun to be the person without a clue, and often without a chance. No expectations (including my own) = No pressure to perform, which for me is a welcome enough change from reality that it could keep me playing poker for the rest of my life.
Nonetheless, I must have improved somewhat because this afternoon (what a degenerate - gambling on Mothers Day!] I placed 2nd in a 6X33 and made it officially back to $In=$Out. Well except for the hundreds of manhours spent spinning in this giant circle, time I probably shouldve been spending with any or all of my 3 kids...And of course allowing that variance might mean I'm still as terrible as I ever was...
Food for thought, but for now I smile and celebrate the simplicity and insanity of nothing accomplished, but nothing owed.
Horatio Alger once noted success is just around the corner, and who am I to argue with that.
posted by Iakaris aka I.A.K. at 9:56 PM
3 Comments:
Hi,
Love your writing style.
As for the point you made a few posts back about playing limits too low/high i have a similar problem when i play SnG's simultanously at different limits.
I often find myself making donkey plays on a $5 table if i am also playing a $10 table....after all in my simple head the $5 table holds less value. More discipline required i think!!
www.koreanpoker@blogspot.com
Cheers
Thirsty
I have no clue what you are saying, but I like how you are saying it. Um, did you just break even or did you bottom out. Either way, its very well written. Good luck.
Jordan,
Thanks for stopping by man - I read you regularly and am uniformly entertained and enlightened your stuff.
As for my own progress...this post was about finally breaking even...I was down to my "last $100" or I was walking away (yeah right). And from that last $70 in the account I've made it back to zero dollars total spent on poker (a $1200+ climb) Its not much of a victory, but beats the alternatives!
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