I hate Mondays. Well, let me back up. I hate Sunday evenings more. But Mondays are what make Sunday evenings bad so I guess I still hate Mondays. As I've gotten older, my mom has been sending me some random stuff that I've either made or written when I was a kid. And there was this one piece of wisdom that I wrote when I was like 7 yrs old...
"My favorite day is Saturday because I can play all day long but on Sundays, we have to get ready for Monday."
When I saw this piece of note that my mom sent me, I realized how much of a true genius I was... to recognize that Sunday night sucks because Monday mornings bring another wave of shittiness (whether it's work or school) at such young age... either that or I just haven't really grown up.
Funny thing is, I don't really hate my job all that much. Actually, I kinda like what I do. BUT, I only do it because I have to. I've heard some people say that "I love my job so much I'd work for free!" (say it in a high pitched voice for full effect). You know what I say to that? You're a loser. Personally, I wouldn't do anything for free. I'm obviously gonna need income so whatever I do for money, I better get paid... that's my take. Imagine taking money out of poker and just playing for fun? I'd quit in a heartbeat. Cuz it won't be fun. And I'm betting so would most of them. "Playing for fun" is a joke of a concept also. Maybe I'm too competitive. But I always thought people who said "oh, I'm just playing for fun" are losers. You play for fun because you know that you can't play to win. A donkey loses a few buy-ins at the table and at the end of the night, you almost always hear this... "Oh well, that was fun. Maybe next time." Yeah, thanks for your money. It was certainly more fun for us taking your money but you obviously wouldn't know anything about that, would you? But I'm a believer in keeping good customers happy so I always give them a smile and say "better luck next time." Naturally, I mean go run to the ATM and get some more money because your money is welcome here anytime.
Wow... I'm angry this morning. But I mean it. I never understood the, I'm just doing it for fun concept. Like when I play basketball... it's always for real. When I come home from our County League basketball games, I tell my wife what happened, what I did wrong, how it may have cost the team or who's not hustling enough, etc and she goes "it's like you're playing in the NBA. You're playing in the County! Let it go." But I can't. I'm a dork like that. I get into it. Anything less than 100% is unacceptable. I talk about cutting people from the team. She thinks I'm psycho... she's probably a little correct.
Ok, on to poker. This week, as I was reading the blogs of others, I noticed that a fellow blogger qualified for one of the preliminary WSOP events. Check out his post! Well, I was more or less inspired by that but my schedule didn't allow me to play in any of the WSOP qualifiers. Instead, I played in a daily double tournament that FTP has going and I was doing fairly well in both. I'm not gonna bore you with the details of a bad beat but on one of the tables, I had AA twice and got cracked both times, of course, preflop all-in... once against TT when he made a flush on the river and then against 33 when he turned a set. The first one hurt but I was able to climb back up. The second one hurt just as bad as the first except this time, the blinds were higher so I effectively had to go all in with A5 two hands later, only to be called by AQ... I played well at both tables but some things didn't quite go my way. Oh well.
On the cash game side, I ran into two very similar situations... they were both on FTP 2-4NL and it was very early. In other words, I had no read on either players. Both about 30-40 hands is all I had...
Situation 1: Villain from late position raises to $12. He had approx $300 behind him (and I obviously still had most of my $400 that I sat with). Button calls and I'm in the small blind with QQ. So I raise it to $40. BB folds and the villain pushes all in for the rest of his $300. Button folds and it's up to me... again, at this point, I had no read on the guy. Of the 30-40 hands he's played, his VP$IP was approx 25% so fairly active but haven't seen anything that would make me label him as overly aggressive. After much contemplation, I ended up folding my QQ.
Situation 2: Villain (different table, different guy, no information on this guy) from late position raises to $12. He had only about $135 behind him. Button calls and I'm in the big blind this time with JJ. I repop it to $40. Villain goes all in and the button folds. It's $90 more to me... so I call. He has KK. Except I catch another J on the turn to deliver a bad beat for him, a nice $300 pot for me.
I think the only difference in the two situations is the amount of money it would cost me. Another $90 when I just invested $40 already and the pot already had approx $200 seemed like it was a relatively easy call even though I had a feeling I was behind... though I have to admit, the fact that the guy had a short stack made me think that he was probably a worse player so he could be doing this with a smaller pair. In other words, his range of hands, to me, were greater than the range of hands I would have given credit to a player with a bigger stack. Right or wrong, that was my thinking based on very limited information.
What would you have done in the 2 situations?
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2 comments:
You either are or aren't a competitve person that wants to win... no matter what. There is no FUN in losing. Your insight as a 7 year old is interesting. Honesty at a young age is priceless.
Just thought I'd chirp in and let you know that I agree whole-heartedly on the working for free or playing poker for fun.
If I have nothing to get out of something that requires to work hard or do something that I don't want to do, I'd sure as shit better get rewarded somehow. And I don't mean rewarded in the karmic sense: I mean rewarded in the "I can buy a Plasma TV with this" sense.
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