Quest of a Closet Poker Player

With so much battering us today just trying to get to the felt, it is becoming easier to get put on tilt. Tilting isn’t the big problem for most of us; it’s getting through without going busto that’s the bigger problem.

I’m railbirding Jeff “yellowsub86″ Williams play $25/50 NLHE on PokerStars with Chris “money800″ Moneymaker, among others. Will these be the artifacts of the turn of the century? $200 to go on the button taking down blinds, continuation bets, gamers playing a dozen tables as if they were playing PacMan or Defender back in the day. Some interesting news relevant to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA): Pauly’s star run in Business Week, Neteller’s .pdf on their position, NY Times editorial (I’m posting a 2+2 link as you won’t have access without a subscription).

Anyways, I’ve found that I’m on edge a bit more than usual, a bit moodier than normal, a bit testier. I’m trying to work on my FullTilt reload bonus (50% up to $500), which brings its own challenges for me. I have yet to work off a bonus and be up as well, normally either treading water or simply losing my roll before reaching the bonus. I understand that must sound fairly stupid, but it is what it is. So I was playing last night, $0.50/1.00 NLHE, and I ran into a buzzsaw that saw me lose $80 or so (I’d been able to get $80 of my reload bonus and actually be up, but that put me back to even), then I proceeded to head to a $2/4 NLHE table. I figure where better to be on tilt than to jump up in stakes? I went the first 150 hands with a VP$IP of 7.36%. If I would have had better hands, I would have played tight. At the table was one 53/18 player plus a couple of guys in their 40’s, so I could get some action and get paid off if I could pick up hands.

Folding when on tilt is a great discipline to have, but it definitely takes alot of work. Patience leaves you when you’re on tilt, as you desparately want action to get back in the game. You go against your reads, either playing pretend poker (pretending to have a 10 when the board reads 10-10-9-6) or simply becoming the bully (he can’t have a J when he raised UTG). Last night was the first time I’ve ever folded my way out of tilt. I was craving heading back down here to play more, but I ended up staying put to watch Survivor with Sweetie.

By the way, congrats to the Cardinals who never should have been in the playoffs in the first place. My own pet peeve, but I thin ever US pro league should do away with divisions. I’m not going to go back and look it up, but I think the Phillies had the fourth best record in the National League. I say put let the AFC teams each play one another and the top six get in the playoffs, balance the schedule in the MLB and let the top four in each league make the playoffs. In the NBA and NHL? Well, who really cares what they do.

And while I’m at it, not having a sixteen-team playoff in NCAA Division I football is plain stupid. Sweetie went to Furman and Georgia Tech, so I follow both throughout the year. Furman is I-AA, and they are in the playoffs most years. Their players are better students on average than most Division I teams, and they are totally fine. So, I never buy into any of the protecting the poor student athlete arguments. With GE/NBC announcing yesterday that they were cutting comedies and dramas in their 8:00PM-9:00PM time slots next year, why in the world wouldn’t everyone want to create new programming that would actually generate huge numbers? Can you imagine the NCAA Football Playoffs? Huge, huge numbers, no doubt about it.

Enough meaningless drivel that I’m not qualified for. yellowsub86 left thirty minutes ago, Moneymaker bluffed at a four-heart board against Grimstarr only to see him call, then the Ah hit the river and they checked it down with Money flipping over 10d-7d and Grimstarr showing 7h for the winner, then Money times out on a board of 3-4-5-6-9. He left soon after, and now the $25/50 NLHE games have dried up. I’m sure there’s no cause and effect here. Have a good weekend, and who knows? I might just sneak in some posts this weekend.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 20th, 2006 at 7:58 am and is filed under Uncategorized.