Why not to... A learned lesson

Hello All,


Well I decided to venture up to Foxwoods on Sunday to watch some of the $340 No limit World Poker Finals event.


Thants the good news!!


The bad news is I decided to play some cash games. Now the reason this was the bad news is I had been awake for two days. I work third shift in the computer business and I had to work all sorts of Overtime for this past weekends' Time change.


I can only imagine what I looked like to my opponents. I was doing some stupid stuff. I mean dumb. I played liked I had never played before. ( actually I had played once or twice before after being awake for a similar amount of time and produced the same stupid results. Another reason I am pissed at myself cause I said I'd never do it again ) I am sure my more astute opponents picked up on my tiredness and took advantage of it,I mean at one point I was so tired I had to take my glasses off and rub my tearing eyes cause they were burning so bad.


Anywhoo..


I am typing this now after waking up from my 20 hour nap, reflecting on the horrendous deeds I performed. I mean raising with J-3 and 6-4 are not good ideas and I don't recomend doing it. The sick part is I knew I shouldn't do crap like that and still did it. I thought it was funny. I certainly don't think it is funy today.


My 1 1/2 hour drive home certainly wasn't funny. I was punching myself with the stereo blasting and the AC on just to stay awake.


If there is one piece of advice I can offer this forum. IT is this. NEVER play when you can't think or see straight, or when you are so tired you walk into a closed door cause you thought it was open. ( yes I did that too ) I can't stress this advice enough!!!!!!! Hopefully I will take my own advice and never do it again.


Later,


CJ


P.S. - If anyone else on this forum was playing 4-8 Hold'Em at Foxwoods on Sunday evening and got a portion of the two racks I gave away. I accept your 'thank you's' now, and I say 'You are Welcome'

While this is good advice, I don't think there is any excuse for playing awful just because you're tired. I can imagine making mistakes like acting out of turn accidentally or making some on the spot mistakes that require a little thought, but things like raising with J3o are just absurd. I know that drinking and playing are a bad combo, but one time I was pretty sloshed at the table and didn't do anything dumb like that (yes I only did this once). Its the subtle errors that one is likely to make, like maybe calling when a raise would have been better (I'm not saying this is a small mistake-some situations it is , some it isn't, but often situations require quick thought and when we are tired we arent very quick- that's what I mean by subtle). So anyway playing tired is no excuse to play like a maniac. I remember a basketball game where Michael Jordan had the flu and he still played well- just because he wasn't anywhere near 100%, didn't turn him into a pile on the floor. You wouldn't hear him say "well I was sick so I figured I'd shoot a few from half court".

But in closing, I agree- don't play if you cant control yourself.

Goat,


I agree, being tired shouldn't be an excuse for playing like an ass. There is no excuse for it. Obviously I just lose my brain when up for two days, or just turn into a 'gambler'. Either way it is not good and does not produce good results, it is also something that will not happen again..


Later,


CJ

I think your over-all EV took a much greater theoretical loss on the 1.5 hour drive home than it did in that $400 loss. Wheewwww, you got a way with it this time.


- Louie

Yeah two days is awfully long to be up. Well luckily it was a cheap 4-8 lesson and not an expensive 40-80 lesson :-)

Hello, CJ,

You were on the "vacation mentality".

I see this frame of mind in a player quite frequently.

You do not have to be on vacation to revert to this mind frame.

Sometimes a player has only a few more minutes to play because his wife wants to go home. He then plays more hands than he should by pushing hands he should not have been playing.

000000I remembered when I was in Vegas several years ago I


succumbed

to this same "vacation mentality". My plne was leaving the next day. Hence, I "gave" 400.00 away.

Be carefull--if you value your bankroll.


Sitting Bull

Larry,


'Vacation Mentality' is an interesting description of this state of mind. One of the reasons I posted this little story is to see if/when any other players were and/or have been subject to a similar state of mind. I certainly didn't post this just to admit that I was subject to such ludicracy. I figure if I can get just one poster to think more about his/her state of mind B4 playing, than this post has done its job. Obviously I need to start paying more attention to this! Funny, I was skimming through some of my older poker books today, and came across Roy West's Stud book. He has a section in there about not playing when your tired, not feeling well, etc. Too bad I didn't skim through this last week. It might have saved me a few hundred.


Take Care,


CJ

Well said Louie!!


Later,


C.J.