Constructive criticism

I noticed last night that my last four entries all bemoan my recent luck. To be honest, it continues. I’m getting stiffed by the turn or river no matter how encouraging the flop; if there are three cards in the deck that can ruin my low draw then one of them will come, if I am in good shape to scoop or three-quarter and put some chips in then I end up getting half or none more often than not.

The good thing is that I am handling it really well - and playing well and staying calm when running bad is certainly far more important than how you play when you are running good. I am only losing a real small amount this week, thanks to picking up my share of orphan pots, not tilting, and just a couple of brave and inspired calls on the river.

It is frustrating, of course, because I have decided that when I win a certain, reasonably small, amount from here then I am going to take a punt at bigger games. I won’t really have anything like the requisite bankroll, even by my own optimistic standards, but I intend to give it a go anyway because:

(a) I am not terribly affected by the amounts at stake at the moment; even though they are appropriate for my bankroll they are ultimately replaceable even for me. Even given the desirable state of not being concerned about the money whilst playing poker, I would like to feel a bit more engaged.

(b) I want to get a feel for different levels of PLO8 since I will certainly be playing higher if I do quit work.

(c) I want to take a shot at building my roll up rather quicker than I am currently doing

(d) I am more than capable of moving back down if I lose

(e) I am easily good enough!

Also with quitting work in mind, I have been pleased to find that I can play a lot of hours with relative ease. I’m managing to fit in four hours some days even when I am at work all day and go out for drinks in the evening! I would like to not play a crazy number of hours if I do quit work, but its also nice to know that I can potentially handle a lot of time if I am behind schedule or trying to make some extra for holidays etc.

Whether I will ever do this remains debatable; I currently play too low and don’t make an hourly rate that would sustain me. I would need a bigger bankroll and bigger games and a lot of determination. But I am not ashamed to say that I definitely want to do it.

On that note, whenever the topic of ‘going pro’ is discussed online, there is always someone who talks of how playing poker for a living is ‘not constructive’. Eg this comment:

‘Poker is not a lifetime vocation. Why? It's not constructive. It doesn't contribute anything to the world.’

Well, my response to that is ‘Yeah? And what do YOU do?’There aren’t that many jobs that ARE constructive or that contribute anything to the world. Are you in accounts? Sales? Delivering things in a van? Writing software? Do you think that on your deathbed you will reflect upon what wonderful things you gave to the world through your forty years of employment?

Obviously, there are exceptions. But most of these whining idiots talking about how poker is not ‘constructive’ are working in some shitty office, shuffling paper, shuffling numbers, meeting clients, doing nothing of benefit to anybody’s soul whatsoever. On top of that, those of them/us who are paid employees but who send personal emails, surf the web, pore over Iggy’s uberposts for an hour in the office and so on, are thieving time from our employers for which they are paying us. I do it to a huge degree and I don’t feel good (nor exactly wracked by gut-wrenching guilt) about it.

I would feel a whole lot better supporting myself through my own efforts on my own time, stealing from nobody, lying to nobody, selling over-priced crap to nobody, schmoozing nobody.

Wouldn’t you?