Poker Purgatory
Groan ... The last few weeks I have seemingly been consumed with staging my own impersonation of Sisyphus at the poker tables, trying to push that rock up the hill, never quite getting there. I shouldn't complain, because things could always be worse. I could be losing, for example. But like the saying goes, the next best thing to playing cards and winning is playing cards and losing. If you wanted to posit a corollary to that statement, you could probably start by noticing how breaking even doesn't figure anywhere into the equation.
Playing break-even poker is probably one of the torments reserved for some of the darkest pits of hell. If you play and win, well, everything is dandy. But even if you play and lose, you're at least going somewhere, even if it isn't where you want to go. Breaking even, however, is like standing at attention for hours on end. Weeks, in my case.
Lately, it seems like there are only two scenarios available to me at the poker table: either lose a sizable amount early and struggle to get it back, or win a sizable amount early and watch it eventually disappear. And that just sucks. Really. Winning and losing are their own reward. If you win, you have the satisfaction of knowing that you are accomplishing something. If you lose, you can generally take solace in that you are paying a price to learn. Or if you're playing well and still losing, you can take comfort in knowing that your good decisions are preventing you from losing even more. WTF am I supposed to take away from a string of break-even sessions?
Then again, I have found that, for me, these periods when I feel like I'm running in place are usually a precursor to some breakthrough moment. I'll be grinding it out, growing more and more frustrated by my inability to do anything, when suddenly I learn something about the game that I hadn't realized before, something that enables me to go on a tear at rack up some chips. I just hope it comes soon ... particularly before the blogger tourney this Sunday.
Playing break-even poker is probably one of the torments reserved for some of the darkest pits of hell. If you play and win, well, everything is dandy. But even if you play and lose, you're at least going somewhere, even if it isn't where you want to go. Breaking even, however, is like standing at attention for hours on end. Weeks, in my case.
Lately, it seems like there are only two scenarios available to me at the poker table: either lose a sizable amount early and struggle to get it back, or win a sizable amount early and watch it eventually disappear. And that just sucks. Really. Winning and losing are their own reward. If you win, you have the satisfaction of knowing that you are accomplishing something. If you lose, you can generally take solace in that you are paying a price to learn. Or if you're playing well and still losing, you can take comfort in knowing that your good decisions are preventing you from losing even more. WTF am I supposed to take away from a string of break-even sessions?
Then again, I have found that, for me, these periods when I feel like I'm running in place are usually a precursor to some breakthrough moment. I'll be grinding it out, growing more and more frustrated by my inability to do anything, when suddenly I learn something about the game that I hadn't realized before, something that enables me to go on a tear at rack up some chips. I just hope it comes soon ... particularly before the blogger tourney this Sunday.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home