my dreams

[MicroBob]

No question or anything...but feel free to comment.
I just think it's kind of interesting.


I've always been one to remember many of my dreams. At least a couple a week if not more.


I'll have enough weird dreams that make no sense of course....like driving to Tijuana in a van (where I've never been) and all the road-signs are all X's and Z's and arrows and make no sense to me...and in the back of the van of this group of people is Loni Anderson who is reading a college textbook..etc etc (this was a real dream btw).


But since playing poker for a career my dreams have frequently directly correlated with how I've been doing at the tables.
The dreams themselves are not poker-related.
It's just that when I'm winning I have positive dreams and when I've been losing the dreams are negative.


Last night -
Typical dream of being back in high-school and I have some exam in 15 minutes that I haven't studied for...and later I'm somehow kind of lost in the hall-ways of this giant school and can't even find the room where i'm supposed to take the test and I'm really afraid I'm going to flunk-out.

Total lack of confidence and insecurity dream.

Well...surprise-surprise that I've been getting CLOBBERED at the tables the past couple of days. (also, I'm 34...so it's kind of funny that I still have these high-school final-exam type dreams A LOT sometimes).


Okay - so when I'm winning....

coach points to me in the bull-pen and I get warmed up to come in and save the 7th game of the world series in front of a huge crowd. I have total confidence in my abilities and even though I know that EVERYONE is counting on me I don't really feel too much pressure and I'm completely secure and comfortable with myself.
More accurately, I am aware of the pressure...but I thrive on it and I have kind of a "been there, done that" mentality.

I know I might go out there and lose...but I know that I'm the best chance we got.
These dreams will vary to different sports too.

These are kind of funny also...because aside from some very modest soccer ability (I still play in an adult-rec league) and maybe some 3-point shooting skill in hoops I am not much of an athlete at all.
My baseball skills even in little-league were absolutely terrible. Couldn't catch, couldn't hit.

Also, when the dream is of me scoring the game-winning goal in the Stanley Cup that's kind of funny too...since in real life I can't even skate. But in my dream it doesn't seem to matter. My teammates want to get me the puck anyway.


What I'm just now realizing is that in my insecure dreams where I'm running late for my final-exam that I haven't even studied for...I have an awareness that if I actually CAN make it there in time I still might be able to scramble my way through the exam and do okay.
I absolutely KNOW that I'm not TOTALLY sunk no matter what.


And I have an equal awareness in my silly 'Bobby Brady Winning Touchdown' type dreams that I'm confident and talented but could still very easily blow it and lose.
This knowledge doesn't effect my confidence however...I just know that it doesn't always go your way sometimes.


I just thought my dreams like this were kind of interesting since they are so obviously related to my general security and confidence levels related to when I've been winning a ton or getting clobbered at the poker tables.

[A_C_Slater]

I often have dreams where I'm still in my Senior year of High School (I'm 25) and I know I'm 25 in the dreams and I have a constant fear that I'll never graduate, but I still don't do any work or go to the classes I hate.

[TStoneMBD]

im sure the tutoring you got from jessica spano got you through it.

[TStoneMBD]

i found this post very amusing for some reason. my performance in poker doesnt affect my dreams at all, unless i have a downswing that threatens depleting my bankroll, which fortunately hasnt happened since i quit playing live. im not sure if the fact that poker affects your mood that much is a good thing or not. at least it means that you are very motivated towards poker, which is a good sign.

[Jorge10]

Heres an interesting one, I dont know about dreams or anything related to that stuff, but I had the same dream for about a week. For one week I would always dream of me losing in a poker game. In my dream I would always know what the right move was, but I would always make the wrong decision and lose. It was a weird dream.

The funniest thing is that during that week I was running really good and was getting some really good cards. I dont know what dreams mean as I have not read anything about them and also theres hundreds of books on it, wouldnt know which one to read, but that one dream kept making me think. I mean I was doing well at the tables in real life, but in my dreams I was always making the wrong decisions even if I knew what the right ones were and losing. It was weird too, I knew what the right play was and I could see their hole cards, but I made the wrong move and lost everytime, it was weird. Any ideas what that means?

[TStoneMBD]

im pretty sure that it means that you were very worried that your good streak would turn sour, or more importantly that your game would start deteriorating from your current run of solid play.

[MicroBob]

That's an interesting take on it...although I'm not sure it's that accurate.

I might get a little bit panicky (not really...bot for the sake of argument) after getting clobbered for a couple of days ....then look at my bankroll and remind myself that I'm pretty much okay (hence the reason I'm not playing too high above my bankroll).

I might be a little frustrated after losing...bit it really doesn't affect my mood that much believe it or not.
I go out with my GF and have a good time and I suspect that if I didn't tell her whether I had won or lost $1k or more that day she wouldn't have been able to tell.
Because when I'm doing something else I'm away from poker. I leave my 'work' behind and don't drag it along with me.

But it obviously is on my subconcious as my dreams clearly show..

When I win I feel like I'm the freaking MAN!! (sort of) and that's obviously reflected in my dreams too.



My back-in-highschool dreams are sometimes similar to the other guy's.
I'm my real age of 34....but somehow I missed a credit or something in there and I have all this pressure on me to finish it off and not flunk out.

Suffice it to say..I've got some pretty goofy stuff going on in my subconcious.
I've had the back-in-highschool dreams of one form or another probably 100-200 times I suspect.
I'm not exaggerating.
I've probably had the sports-hero type dreams about as many times.
And the sports-hero dreams really are pretty fun. I wake-up..and then remember my dream...and I can't stop laughing because they're so ridiculous.
running the marathon in 2 hours or scoring 4 goals in hockey (when I can't even skate).
I just crack myself up (and a shrink might think I really am cracked-up I suppose)

[MicroBob]

Here's another dream from a couple months ago.
It came shortly after I had won my seat to the WSOP on Stars (and way before I had actually been to vegas).
I'm in some side room getting ready to play day 1c I think.
I look on the bulletin-board there and see that I'm going to be playing on Table 85, Seat 8.
I also see that Gus Hansen is going to be on my table too.
I jokingly whine about my bad-beat of a tough table that I've drawn.
Eventually I make my way into the main room and find my table.
There's a little place-card that says 'Seat 8' but it's actually in Seat 1. I ask the dealer if this is seat 8 and he says 'That's what the card says doesn't it?'
Okay...nevermind. I sit down.

Gus Hansen doesn't show up (he pulls something of a Hellmuth).
On the next table over Demi Moore is playing...and Jennifer Tilly is sweating her and cheering her on (the dream was before Tilly won the bracelet).

I catch some good cards in teh first hour or so. Catch a couple of draws. My stack is building up pretty fast.
My chips are spilling over to the seat next to me and I'm a bit concerned because I don't want him to steal any of it.

But I'm not that concerned because I have SO many chips that if he snags a couple of $100 chips it really doesn't bother me.
Some of the $100 chips are just small coins or tokens.
It's easy to lose track of the little dime-size $100 chips amidst the bigger regular-size chips.

The dream ends with me limping in with some hand...and someone else re-raising for 4xBB or something.
It was only then that I realized "Oh crap. This is a no-limit tourney. I'd been playing it like it was limit this whole freaking time." and I thought about how many more chips I SHOULD have won if I had been raising more than the minimum on each round.

Well, at least I know I'll never have the high school test anxiety dream. I always knew I'd fail the test before I took it, mainly because I never studied or paid attention in class, and this is assuming the test would be on one of the 2-3 days out of the week that I actually went to class. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

My bad dreams usually involve people chasing after me with AK-47s and trying to kill me, and of course I don't have a gun to shoot back at them. But somehow they always miss. My worst dreams are ones in which I get married and have kids. *shudder*

My good dreams... wait, I never have good dreams. Oh well.

[mosquito]

The thing is, you may never know with any degree of
confidence (about your dreams) unless you choose to
go through some kind of psycho-analysis.

GL