Short break

After the past 3 months of playing once/week up at Tulalip (with 2 weekends I played Friday and Saturday), I've got an off weekend. I'm down in Orlando visiting my grandparents. Grandpa has pancreatic cancer, and is likely to start treatments in about 2-3 weeks. If the PET scans he just had done are not promising, though, well....he may skip the treatments and just go when it's time.

What a helluva scary decision that must be to make.

Anyway...

So normally, this time of the week I'd be at the tables (I start around 3-4pm Pacific and go for 1-16 hours typically). The last break I took was when I was running really bad, and the break was good for me to examine my game.

This time, though, I've been on fire. Yea, luck-boxed into some pots. But I'll tell ya - I feel better and more confident about my game today than I ever have. I fell like I've finally, after all these years, finally I've begun to flourish into a real poker player.

I need to work on some aspects of my game. I know I need to come up with a physical routine at the tables, as I know I give off some physical tells to observant players. I need to continue to work on my value betting. And I'd like to get to the level where I'm trying to misrepresent my hand to my oponent...

These will be necessary for me to be sucessful once I step up to $3/$5. The $1/$3 game (with the $200 buy in) is playing a lot like the old 2-5 game was playing, just not quite as big. It's really the perfect game for where I'm at though: can beat the players, can beat the rake, can build a bankroll, can have losing sessions that won't be psychologically devastating... you know, moving up may not happen for quite a while.

I'd like to make more money at the game, and I will take a shot at some point, but for now - I'm earning enough to pay for school and books, and to sock some away for when I"m in my poorly paid internship next summer. Yea, I want to step up, but my bankroll would be in jeopardy after 1 really bad night. I can't jeopardize my poker career just by taking a shot at the next level. I'm not worried about the play there: I'm confident I will do fine at that level. At this point, though, one $3/$5 downswing would hurt the roll and my psyche too much...

I'd love to be at the tables... as much as I'm loving the vacation, I've got two things I'm looking forward to next weekend: Friday, Angel and I are going to a play then a late dinner (and perhaps dessert at my place), then Saturday - back up at the tables.