I took a refrigerator box out of my storage and put it in front of the windows in my office. Normally I liked the view of the nature but lately the sun has been shining right in my eyes. I don’t know if my neighbor cut down a tree or what, but it was driving me insane. My office looks more like a geek hang out now but it seemed to be conducive to productive play.
I took Monday off because I played a 17 hour Sunday and I was completely wrecked. Tuesday I just didn’t have it. I don’t know what was with me but I made a lot of subpar decisions. That really pissed me off because every day you play bad in this game you’re going to have to make up with another day, so in effect you’ve lost two days, since you’re going to have to grind those losses back.
A little annoyed with myself I went hard on Wednesday, and ended up making three final tables in the late 100r, the 30 quad, and the $50 6-max turbo. I ended up winning the 30 Quad for $4.6K, so that was really fun. It’s always nice to get that all-powerful feeling when you’re running amazing, all your bluffs are working, and you get three streets when you finally have it. I just like winning too, the process of working down from hundreds if not thousands of players to just a couple, to taking their stack little by little. I guess it appeases the competitor in me. I like busting people, or the threat of me being busted. Cash games are great and all, but I like there to be that threat of, “if you’re wrong there’s no coming back to this table. You’ll have to fight for hours again to get another shot at me.”
I was a little pissed off about the other final tables. I just lost flips, but in pretty horrific fashion. I got it in with 33 against AK for the chip lead at the $50 6-max final table, flopped the set, then got runner runnered. I also had A-6o to a guy’s KQ on the 100r bubble, the board came A-6-3, turn J, river 10. That same guy ended up coolering me a bit later, so instead of coming into the biggest final table with a chip lead stack I limped in with 20 BBs, ran it up to 35, then ran TT into JJ.
It’s one of the maddening things about tournament poker. You play hours and hours and the difference between a 20K profit week and nothing is a couple of hands. You feel fortunate to even get in those spots.
I’m in a similar position this week. Pretty much break even heading into the weekend. I’m happy to be keeping out of makeup but I’m focused now. I have no distractions. I have a girlfriend whose supported me from private beaches to flop houses, and I want to make her proud. My whole family believes in me, I know what game I have, but I’ve never been a professional. I’ve never been sober, on my shit, and saving my dollars. I’ve been a clown, only making money to further my partying habits. Now it’s time for the real deal, to be a real professional, and…this last year has been a variance concussion. Making six figures over 80 hour weeks for nine months, and watching it all swept away in a day on Black Friday, struggling to make a profit live and on Pokerstars, spinning so many plates with my other businesses.
Now there’s no makeup, there’s money coming in, and no project I’m working on needs a cash injection. It’s that little headway I’ve been hauling ass for.
And my game, I feel my game on point right now. I still can mess up, but its happening less and less. I’m building up and having a good time every time I play. I love the sweats, I love working on the problems, and now I just want to flesh everything out.
I took today off to do some budgets, pay some bills, work on some other business stuff, clean my house a bit (OCD FTW), pick up my meds, talk to the academy I’m hoping to attend, maybe shoot a video for p5s, and…yeah, there’s a lot of things I need to take care of. I don’t like taking days off right now but I got a lot of things to figure out, and I don’t like that being on my mind while I work.
Also was nice to kick back and read a book. I finished this one called Ready Player One. Essentially, in a post-apocalyptic future (which is sadly really easy to imagine) people are unable to travel due to the high price of gas and its difficult to walk around the real world because most people are starving and poor, ravenously stealing from others. So people exist in this kind of Matrix, this MMORPG, this perfect simulated world, called the OASIS.
The game’s creator, a multibillionaire reclusive mental patient with a penchant for old school video games and movies, announces that after he dies he will be leaving his entire fortune to one lucky person, who…if they can discover the Easter Egg he hid in his game…will be given his entire fortune and control of the world’s favorite simulated existence.
A subculture opens up with people studying all the art this man was interested in before he died, since he tells the world that knowledge of his interests will give you hints on where the egg is located, and will also get you past the challenges he has set up. The OASIS’s competitor corporation obviously takes a huge interest in the contest, seeing as they could gain majority control and billions of dollars of their competition should they win it. The world becomes infatuated with this race.
There’s some parts of the book that are decidedly heavy, but the majority of it was like drinking a Coke with real sugar…just sweet. I had a lot of fun reading the book. The dude writing it gets really preachy at a couple different points, and that bugged me, but it was just really creative and well written, and a treat for anyone who is as big of a geek as me. There’s so many references for kids who grew up as a gamers, anime-lovers, hackers, movie hounds, etc.
I feel real lucky just to chill and read books, have my peaceful little abode here in the mountains. Probably the wealthiest I’ve ever felt in my life, even though compared to where I was…I’m broke as hell right now. It’s just so chill to kick back with my dog laying on my belly, reading a book on my tablet. My girlfriend’s the greatest, getting me a tablet to read books on (so helpful in a country where books in English are hard to find), and a dog to hang out with while I’m reading. It’s definitely really helpful when taking a break can help you recharge for the next game.
