New job
I've accepted a job as a regular contributor to a new poker related publication. They asked me to write strategy but I countered with "I'd much prefer to write whatever the hell I feel like" (as writing strategy all the time gets very dull) and they seemed quite happy to have me on board doing that. Still, I questioned whether they would truly give me carte blanche so I decided to write an article inspired by a conversation we had the other day in the Australian MTT Skype chat which will be amusing to anyone who knows those involved and incomprehensibly esoteric to those who don't.
Our conversation was about how washed up we'd all become because for the past couple of weeks most of the Skype chat had either been mega failing at tournaments (such as yours truly) or barely playing. I decided to write an article with that concept, discussing what each member of that chat was known for and how they became washed up. A couple brief examples include:
"Joel Dodds:
Known for: His robust physique, attributing his robust physique to various junk foods and alcohol, playing aces and only aces, a wit so sharp it once poked Robin Saab hard enough that he nearly attacked him while drunk."
And
"Dean 'Dinjo' Nyberg:
Known for: Sweating, sweating (not a typo), enthralling the Skype chat with naked pictures of some girl he knows."
Yet when I showed the content I was working on to my contact at the publication she complimented it for being different. I can't remember the last time a person in a position of authority encouraged my glibness. It was a strange moment for me. Then she told me the article was in fact not due that day as things had been pushed back a couple weeks, which inevitably led to my stopping my work on the article, getting baked, and watching 'The Daily Show' instead of doing my work. I consider it a good decision.
All jokes aside, the last two weeks have made me feel pretty washed up. I'm tracking the change in my accounts daily now instead of my previous frequency of never. I actually haven't lost much on the bad run though I've been questioning my play and trying to post and discuss a lot of hands. I've also had some pretty awesome accomplishments in the field of failure, such as getting heads up in a $24 six max tournament yesterday against a fairly bad player, getting a 10 to 1 chip lead over him, and still losing. Such is my excellence. Still, it's important to keep in mind that two weeks of variance in MTT's is absolutely nothing and all I need to do is keep studying and keep grinding.
Unfortunately my life has been a bit dull lately and devoid of quality blogging material. I've stopped waking up at 5:30am in favor of 8:30am, but am still trying to get into the gym twice a day. My body is one giant ache as a result of an epic three plus hour tennis match against my dealer friend Howie the other day and an hour of boxing training this morning. Getting up from my office chair is a mix of discomfort and agony, so I think I'll drop by a massage parlor tonight and try to get straightened out (no, not the happy ending kind.)
The Joe Hachem deep stack series is on at Crown, but the buy ins are fairly low and a couple of the larger buy in tournaments fall on days that have very good online action so it looks like I might only stop in for one event, the $1700 short handed shoot out. It would likely be wise to get a little live poker experience in before I go play at the Bellagio, though considering the quality of field the $25,000 buy in will attract I'd likely be better off playing at home. Honestly, I really wish I could turn that seat into cash (it can't be sold and is non transferable.) I know a lot of guys would fucking kill to play that tournament but I have little interest in playing a very high buy in, high variance tournament with a tough field that plays incredibly deep and therefore is not particularly to an online MTT'ers advantage. I'd imagine I'm still +EV in it, but not hugely so and I put zero value on the 'experience' of playing a tournament. Until then though I'll be working very hard on ironing out the leaks in my game so I can stop sucking at poker.