Getting Well and Back to the Grind

So I've had an adventurous week. Last Wednesday, I took my son, Griffey, in to see our Pediatrician because he wasn't feeling well. She diagnosed him with bronchitis and wrote him a script. Later that night, he complained a little about his stomach hurting. No big deal. In the middle of the night, he woke up with a fever and was feeling bad. We weren't too surprised, after all, he had bronchitis and isn't expected to feel great.

The next day, he battled fevers and stomach pains all day. One of the side effects of the medicine he was on was stomach cramps. My wife was on the phone multiple times with our Pedtrician's office throughout the day. They simply said that it could be gas. They recommended gas relief pills and said to call back if he doesn't improve.

Around 6pm, Griffey was sleeping but he was breathing really hard. You could see his chest/stomach retracting severely. At that point, we took him to Urgent Care. There, he was diagnosed with H1N1 and pneumonia. He was admitted into Children's Hospital Thursday night and wasn't released until Sunday afternoon. I stayed the night with him Friday night to relieve my wife. That night, I caught something as well and felt like I had been run over by a truck.

Griffey is home now, and I am feeling better. Although, my other son, Brady, just threw his guts up about an hour ago. Here we go again.

Tonight was the first time in a week that I have played any poker. Ever since my break earlier this month, I have lacked the intense motivation that I am normally accustomed to. Those close to me know that I would rather play poker than breath. So lack motivation is saying something.

Tonight was different. Tonight, I was eager to play. Tonight, I played pretty good. I had really good focus and took my time to think through every post flop decision. Unfortunately, I didn't have any super deep MTT runs, but I did manage to chop an $11 45 man and finish 3rd in another one. Overall, I am up about $130 on the night. Next post I hope to be describing an epic win for $4k or $5k.

Can't Get Motivated

In my last post I eluded to the fact that I was taking some time off from poker. I last played last Sunday, not including a short 30 minute session a few days ago. My plan was to not play for 1 week at least, not until after Super Bowl Sunday. I wanted to take some time off for a few different reasons. I had been going so hard that I just felt I needed to take some time off to recharge the batteries. Also, as my volume of play had gone up, so had the number of bad beats I was seeing. These bad beats were putting me on Monkey Tilt. At the same time, my 45 man game had gone to shit. (45 man games are 9 table tournaments). 45's were a constant money maker for me, but of late, they had become my worst game. Some time off would also allow me to get caught up on some much needed sleep as well as spend some more time with the family. Studying and improving one's game is a must for any serious poker player and as long as I was playing, I wasn't going to take time to study. So this was another goal for during my time away.

During my time away, I have slept about 2 -2.5x longer each night. I have been reading 2 different poker books, watched 1 poker training video, and spoke to a couple of different coaches about training sessions for next week. Friday night, we celebrated my brother-in-law's 21st birthday. My mother-in-law watched the kids and I got drunk and partied for the first time in probably 2+ years. This past week has been great, and I have had very little urge to play poker.

However, today, I got a small itch to play. Sunday's are like Saturday's to College football, or Sunday's to Pro football. All the biggest tournaments are played on Sunday's. For $22, you can enter into Full Tilt's Double Deuce which offers a guaranteed prize pool of $200,000. First place pays a minimum of $31,000. For $11, you can enter Poker Star's 1/4 million that features a $250,000 minimum prize pool. Those are not even the biggest prize pool tournaments offered on Sunday's.

Due to the Super Bowl starting at 6:30, I decided to only play in a couple of tournaments. I played in a couple of satellite tournaments and did well. I started by playing in a $3.30 Sit and Go and won an entry into the $8.70 SNG satellite. I also won the $8.70 which paid a $26 tournament ticket. I played both of these on auto pilot. I used my $26 ticket to try to win a seat into today's $216 FTOPS Event #1, which offers a $1 million guaranteed prize pool. As of 5:00pm, the prize pool has risen to $1.2 million. About the time I started the $26 satellite, I bought straight into the $11 1/4 million event. I busted out of the satty, and played with no passion in the 1/4 million. It didn't matter what cards I had, I simply tried to bully the other players by throwing my chips around as if I had an endless supply. I tried to pull a triple barrel bluff with nothing but a 9 high. That left me with a third of the starting chips. I didn't have the patience to rebuild my stack. Therefore I limped with 3 6 and called a late position raiser. I proceeded to shove all my chips in on a dry flop and was quickly called by pocket aces. I busted out in about 10 minutes, but I didn't care.

The only thing I can think about now is how much of a grind poker really is. To win, or make it to the final table of any online tournament with 500 or more players, you will be playing for 5 hours at least. When I won the Midnight Madness, there were over 2,000 players and I think it lasted 7 or 8 hours. The beats are also very taxing. Poker is kind of like hitters in baseball. You are going to experience failure more than success. So to continue to lose, lose, lose, min cash, take a bad beat, and another bad beat, followed by a min cash, it is very tough mentally. However, like baseball, striking out 3 times only to hit a game winning home run in your last at bat of Game 7 in the World Series, 1 win makes the long hours and endless bad beats well worth it. Hopefully, once I officially end my hiatus, my passion and motivation will reappear and drive me to new poker highs.

Me and My Daily Routine

The thought of creating and updating a blog is easy and fun. The actual act is something completely different.

For those of you who don't know, I am happily married and the proud parent of 5 1/2 year old triplets. As if that is not enough, my wife, Erin, and I gained legal guardianship of our 1 year old nephew last Summer. We also have 3 four legged friends and a few fish that we really don't take care of.

My day usually starts in the late morning. I am a broker, or financial advisor, with Wells Fargo Advisors. I usually get home around 5 or 6pm to an exhausted wife and rambunctious kids. I try my best to help out with home work and dinner when I get home. But most times it isn't enough for Erin to unwind. In between the bickering and screaming (both joyful and or anger) we try to get them settled down and ready for bed. On the good nights, we get 2 of the triplets asleep by 9pm. On the not so good nights, all three will be up well after 10:30. It is not until all kids are asleep that I can start up on poker. But first I eat, if I haven't already, and spend some time with my wife. Most of the time, I don't spend enough time with her.

So poker for me usually starts around 11 -11:30 pm, 4 -6 nights a week. I always register for Full Tilt's Midnight Madness. It is my favorite for a couple of different reasons. It is perfect for my bankroll ($11). It's prize pool ($20k+) is big enough to really get the juices flowing. It's the only tournament within the above parameters that starts late enough for me to enter but not so late that I will be up until 8am if I go super deep. Finally, I really love this tournament because I won it about 2 years ago while I played under Chewbacca Nuts.

My session usually end between 4 and 5 am, unless I am deep in an MTT. These late night's usually mean I only get around 4 hours of sleep a night. I have been on this schedule for about 2 years now, only now my sessions are a little longer than they were a year or two ago and they are more often. Each and every day, I feel tired and I know I look terrible. I have only played about 30 minutes since last Sunday and I definitely feel much better. I've had 3 straight nights of great sleep, yet I still dozed off this afternoon. I bet I probably would not be fully caught up on sleep for another 2 days. Good thing I dont plan to play again until after Super Bowl Sunday.

Next post, I'll probably talk about the type of player I am today and what I still struggle with.