[Josh W]

I need to write. See, I've spent the last hour deciding which is better, "recycling" or going "commando". I've since decided to put the matter to rest by doing laundry. So, I'm up, waiting for the buzzer.

And that leaves me with you, dear forum. You, and Party Poker.

I've had to start thinking quite a bit about poker. See, I've been 'running' poorly. In reality, as Obi--wan and Gaylord Focker and Sooga can attest, I've been playing somewhat lousy. There's too much OTHER stuff going on right now, I guess, for me to be paying enough attention...my own damn fault.

I start every session playing too loose, then end up by playing too gunshy. I'm getting stuck too much, a lot. For example, yesterday, I got into a game for 7 racks. SEVEN. Siete. Ooof.

But, while I keep digging myself holes, I'm proud of how emotionally-in-control I've been. And it made me think about the movie "Rounders" (surprise, surprise). When Knisch tells Damon that Worm is cheating, and Mike (er, Damon) goes to pull him out of the game with Roman and Maurice, Worm says he can't leave now cuz "it's a very emotional game".

That line seemed perfect in the movie. But the more I think about poker, the more I realize that this is a farce. If you really wanna win, you need to be emotionless in the game.

And, as wretchedly as I've played, and as poorly as I've ran, I've done well at remaining emotionless. I've lost to a lot of 2 and 3 outers on the river recently, and I've even often contained the urge to show my losing hand with a "Golly Gee, you sure do suck (out a lot) look".

I guess I'm thinking of the Rudyard Kipling poem (?) where he says something like "if you can keep your head when all others around you are losing theirs, you'll be a man, my son". Not that I'm looking for any poets to call me a man, but I realized that this is a critical part of the game that many great players overlook.

I've done something new, too. I folded AQ in the BB for a single raise. That was a new one for me. UTG raised, all mucked to me, he's very tight passive, and I mucked. He showed KK. And that made me realize that I've been calling entirely too many raises in the BB with raggedy aces, that lead to me bleeding chips.

I also realized that I'm playing too many medium/small pairs. This is particularly silly, cuz every friggin cardplayer article discusses this, and I'm still too loose with them. Gaylord, if you are reading this, I cold-called one of your UTG raises w/ 44 today after one other caller. I gotta think that that's not a good move for me.

And, finally, I gotta say this. I've been playing for 3 years now. I've seen dang near every type of player out there. And I only know of ONE player out there who never has blamed luck, and who always always ALWAYS looks inward when things get going bad. I'm sure that there are others, but I'm the only guy I know of who always blames his own play first.

Tooting my own horn warning...

You can learn a ton of mistakes by watching me play. A ton. But I think that most/all players could take this page from my book. I know that if everybody in my game starts blaming themselves more, and the dealer less, the game will get a lot Lot LOT worse, quickly.

Buzzer.

Phew, don't gotta go commando tomorrow.

Josh