Oh, hello there, dear reader. Yes, it has been a while since I've played poker. Yes, it has been even longer since I've written anything.
See, what had happened was, my poker game blew up. And when I say "blew up" I mean exploded. And when I say "exploded" I mean imploded. And with it, so went my brain.
If you'll recall, the beginning of 2012 was pretty amazing. Out of 13 sessions, 11 of them were winning sessions. I was reading everything in sight and improving my game on an almost daily basis. The only problem, and a problem I didn't see, was that I was getting over-confident. I thought I could crush any game I played in. I started overplaying my hands. I started pushing my stack around in bad spots.
Then I started losing.
I wasn't ready for that. For as big as my upswing was at the beginning of the year, the following downswing was just as bad. Over the next 12 sessions I had 10 losing sessions. I know a lot of that was the standard variance that happens in this silly game we play, but my over-confidence didn't help. Because I was "high" on myself, I wasn't emotionally ready to deal with the variance. I would push and push, trying to get my bankroll to bounce back to where it was, when all I needed to do was take a deep breath and go back to the basics.
I destroyed my bankroll.
I scraped together enough money for a trip to Vegas in May; couldn't win a thing. I had a Skype coaching session with a couple of Stack'em coaches that I thought would help. I put together a little bankroll for the WSOP in June, including selling percentages to family and friends; couldn't win a thing.
It was at that point that I decided to walk away.
I was drained. I wasn't enjoying my job. My best friend got married and moved. I had a hernia repair fail. And I sucked at the one thing I really loved doing: playing poker.
But about a month ago I started getting the urge. It had been three months since I'd even looked at a deck of cards, and I wanted to get back to it. I felt emotionally settled. I felt calm.
So last night I played. And I played well.
Everything I've learned came into play, and I was picking the right moments to use it. I think part of my downfall during the early part of the year was my urge to use EVERYTHING I was learning, right now, right away, bluff, steal, raise, go go GO. What I wasn't paying attention to was that I was doing things in situations that weren't right. But last night I was patient. I was folding most of my hands. When I did see a flop, I was aware of who my opponents were and how they played. I was always willing to muck my hand if I knew I was beat. In just over three hours, I turned $200 into $545. Boom!
It's good to have knowledge of the game. But knowledge of the game doesn't help at all if you don't know how and when to use it. You can't force a bluff. You have to wait for the right bluff situation against the right player. You can't get into "chase mode" just because someone else at the table is doing it and it's working. That player will eventually go broke, and you don't want to be like him.
I've heard it said that sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you can get back up. I think that's what I did. Luckily, my rock bottom didn't involve losing my job and living on the streets, but I think you know what I mean. I needed to my poker game to be completely torn to shreds before I could move forward.
So now I'm back. I have a better understanding of myself, my life, and my poker game. And it's time to make this work.
-KDiggity-
