Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Just Say No To Karaoke

I'm happy for Liriano making the All-Star team, the spot had to pass through two other (well-deserved) players for him to get the nod but he's rightfully on the team.


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Phil Hellmuth Poker Tip Of The Day:

Secret #6: Get the proper rest


My softball team managed two quick victories last night (and I wasn’t much help only going five for nine on the night). After turning down an invite to karaoke (I don’t sing, but I’m happy to make fun of your beautiful nails-on-chalkboard remix of “We’ve Only Just Begun”) at a local sport bar with a DJ named “Sexy Chocolate” (you make your own visual picture here). Instead, I was going to hit up a little online poker because it’s the cool thing to do as all the media outlets would agree.

At least the home run derby on ESPN didn’t cost anything, and I’m sure Sexy Chocolate would have had “1000 Points of Hate” all ready for me to rock my bad ass off too.

Sorry, I don’t “rock out”, I don’t dance, but if you get me drunk I might do the electric slide for your amusement. Its Electric!

Back to this poker thing…

Bubbled in a peep sex tourney (yes, it was a coin flip and no I still can’t win them, why is this not covered in Harrington’s books?!?!) then dropping a couple buy ins at a micro NLHE table while having fun with Bloody P. I’m still experimenting with a LAG style in the lower limits of NLHE and it’s surprisingly effective. Now if I could work on applying the brakes when necessary, hell I might become a break-even player!

Or am I wasting time by not taking my shots?

When I’m short on time I tend to play a SnG or two and some lower limit NLHE cash games which seems like a small tear in the bottom of a bag of cat food that’s slowly leaking pellets thru the rip. Not to say I’m not profitable playing SnGs or the micro limit games, but I am spending time playing games that will not have a significant impact on my bankroll.

I think I just confused myself which wouldn’t be the first time.

Yes, I’d like to advance thru the limits but you can’t do that without taking shots. Currently a 63 day old child enjoys getting her father up at different hours of the morning because its fun and empowering to weld this +5 Staff of Tears and beat me over the head with it at two or three in the morning. Mix in a toddler who’s running a fever and you’ve have priorities firmly in place elsewhere. I know I’m not the only parent who plays poker semi-seriously, and I’m definitely not the only parent who has kids that are/have been sick, but how do you make time pursuing something that requires time to become profitable?

Do I cash out my frequent player points and go dark till such a time that I can devote X amount of hours every day to yelling at the laptop to stop turning over virtual coin flips in favor of my opponents? Or can I continue to get by with an hour here, a nap-time there and getting more rest as suggested by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. When I started to play it was my intent to continue climbing up limits as the bankroll grew without taking the thrown cups of fruit, wife’s ice glares, or even yard work into consideration. After almost two years of playing “serious” poker I can see now that any hobby/pursuit should include the previously mentioned spots of life because that’s who I am.

I am not single, I have kids, and I do too many things outside of poker that I cannot devote the time to blow thru the limits and tournament fields as I’ve read on other blogs and journals. I made the mistake once of neglecting life while playing Dark Age of Camelot, a very dark time that I don’t wish to repeat. So, I might not get to realize my dream of playing in the WSOP till next year, or the year after. Maybe my slow growth thru the poker ranks is a sign that I should take up a new hobby like competitive stamp collecting, or perhaps I’m doing this correctly and not throwing my hardly earned bankroll into someone elses coffers when there’s little chance of me being a better player.

Have I failed because I’m not playing the $5/$10 or $10/$20 O8 games as I mapped out at the beginning of the year? Did I fail because I’m not lining Harrah’s pockets with $1,000 - $2,000 for the buy-in of a WSOP event this year?

It feels like a failure, but if you can’t get thru losing you’ll never become much of anything in poker or in life. I guess I just talked myself into trudging onward thru the mud and lost coin flips.

Thanks for dropping by, now I don’t know the whole story despite reading the whole story at the Star Trib yesterday, but there was a 17 year old who signed up for the National Guards with the intentions of cashing in those bonuses and free education for his two weekends a month and two weeks a year (which obviously weighs a greater enrollment responsibility due to the conflict in Iraq).

But *gasp* people in the military are directive and do things like “shout orders” and “expect you to obey” and “do physical things”. So when its time for basic training to start he wants out.

Instead of attempting to file the proper documents he gets a cool picture of himself on the front page of the newspaper and a sob story explaining that his parents couldn’t read the military contract because they don’t speak enough English (they are legal immigrants from El Salvador) despite the fact that he egged them on to sign it.

I may sound a little harsh, but it’s a life changing decision to enter the military and not something to be taken so lightly.

My question is: What the heck did you think you were going to do in the military, play Madden 2006 on your PSP all day in the barracks? And why didn’t you read the contract to your parents?

Seems like a cop-out to say “I didn’t know”, which is fine but he was advised on how to terminate the contract without wasting a reporter’s ink.

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