Absent online

I’m just not getting any hours in at the moment. Since playing a long session last Saturday, I have managed precisely one hour and ten minutes. Admittedly that session was ended prematurely by a site crash, but the fact remains that I’m just not getting my head down and playing enough.

My annoyance with myself over this fact has made me realise the point I have come to in my poker playing. Although I play at a very low stake level, poker has become an important addition to my income; over the last few months poker has topped up my salary by 20%, keeping myself going in the latter stages of each month with my withdrawals - however much I wish I didn’t have to draw on the bankroll. I do play poker when there are other things I would as soon be doing (watching DVDs, reading, socialising, a little guilt-appeasing family time etc) because I see it as a part-time job.Anyway, the lack of hours this week has been due to a combination of social and work circumstances. I intend to play a ton over the weekend and next week.

One of the social circumstances was watching a docu-movie called ‘The Corporation’ on Wednesday night, after which I slept at my brother’s house. The film was excellent; informative, intelligent and sober. I’ve not seen any of Michael Moore’s films, but I don’t think many of the criticisms aimed at his work could be levelled at ‘The Corporation’. Highly recommended, unless you are convinced you couldn’t watch a well-over-two-hours documentary - I didn’t get bored myself.

Another social circumstance was playing in the private clubby sort of tournament. Five paid and I came seventh. I felt I had played really, really well moat of the way (although perhaps I should have been more conservative with the very large stack I had at one point), but I went out on a really, really poor move with Ace Two. I was very tired indeed by that stage, but I still should have known better.

I must say that, as a dedicated online player, it has been enormous fun to play live for about ten hours over the last two weeks and be reminded of all the factors that can inform your decisions which are absent online. People folding or checking out of turn, the way they handle their chips and cards, where they are looking, how they react to the flop, how much money they seem to have, and so on. I certainly made a number of bets that I wouldn’t have made in the same situations online, deprived of some of that information.All that said, I may give it a miss next week. I could do without the tiring late finish and spending on the taxi home, when I could be sitting in an armchair raking some Omaha pots.

Have a good weekend.