Trump Indiana

Heading up for the weekend, booked a room, just waiting to leave. I'll post a review when I get back. I haven't been there for about a year.

Things I learned today...

…while playing the WPBT:

• You can'’t say penis on PokerStars, but clitoris is ok (I may be overstating this point by now, but I feel the world needs to know)
• I hate baby faces for avatars.
• 72o can take down AA and KK in one hand (I’m sure there is at least 10 posts about this other places)
• WPBT online tournaments need bigger chat windows
  
• If the computer can'’t deal the cards faster than a live dealer, why have it on a computer?
• Daddy is a hilarious
• April is interesting to talk to
• I suck at MTT, especially when everyone is better than I am

I've been doing some other thinking. Maybe I'm not as good as I think I am, maybe I just can't admit to myself that I'm just another fish. Or am I scared that I might not be as good as I think I am, but I really am pretty good. I'm not sure, but something is effecting my game. Sometimes I feel like that half brain dead shop teacher when I am explaining plays and moves to other people. Do I really know it, or am I just rambling about bullshit.

I have been really good at a few things already in my life. When I was at that stage in those paths, I would hear other people talking about the subject and just laugh to myself at their complete lack of real understanding of the subject. Real understanding of poker doesn't come by making a couple of good plays here and there, it comes from maximizing every pot, not by knowing all the percentages, but playing them perfectly.

Something occurred to me a while ago about poker. Imagine a roulette wheel with only red and black. Red and black pay 2.1:1 on a bet. You are long term profitable betting black every time. If you have $100 it's silly to bet it all one time, you are better off betting $1 at a time and going for the long haul. You build it up and you can bet $2, lather, rinse, repeat. That is how I view poker now.

Playing limit the last couple days, after reading half of SSH, I made another discovery. Making BB/hour is my goal. Today I had KK flop comes 89Q, EP checks, I bet, LP calls, EP raises, I fold. It's going to cost me a minimum of 2.5BB to call down what could already be a nut hand. There will be better places to get my money involved for a bigger pot. Why dig a hole here? Why screw up my BB/hour with a crying call? Screw it, I'll just fold, maybe I had the best hand, but I would rather do the raising then the calling. Maybe I don't understand this game, sometimes it's better to just forget everything you know and start over.

Final notes: I HATE baby pictures on PokerStars.

Plumbing

I've been tilting all day. Not in the way that you know it, but the deep seeded really screws up your play, you call when you know you are behind hoping for a bad beat, you overplay your hand because the other players are that bad, and you just can't hit a flop tilting. The hands and the loses don't matter. I tried playing different places, different levels, different games, no dice. I tried breathing slowly, thinking of a plush green field with packs of wild horny naked Swedish bikini models running through it like waves hitting the beach in that hidden cove town down in Mexico. I was just lying to myself. I knew I was tilting, none of that other stuff mattered, I wasn't going to get right that way.

Too many fish, too many bad beats, too much Tilt episode 3, not enough poker. Poker at it's truest form, played, not gambled. It then hit me, I know when I feel the best, I know when I make more right plays than bad, I know one place on the internet where you can still play poker at it's most beautiful form, where outdraws happen the least: One on One NL tournament. That's where I plumb myself.

Plumb \Plumb\, a.

Perpendicular; vertical; conforming the direction of a line

attached to a plumb; as, the wall is plumb.

To make things even better this was the sort of player that has seen far too much TV, watched too much Tilt, and isn't even a home-game hero, but rather the manic that pushes chips around with his frat-boy and/or rich-boy-pseudo-hippy 'friends.' With 10/20 blinds I was subject to all-in pushes from the small blind with what I assume to be any pocket pair or a high ace. None of this panned out for him, as he was subject to a slow chipping away of his stack. There were no big hands to recall, just better play. Jebus, I'm a cocky ass, but I needed to shake this tilt.

I'm interested as to what else makes others plumb.