My life has been filled with excitement over this last weekend. As you may know, Danny and I are sports fanatics, especially when it comes to Football. We we’re born in Washington DC and lived there until with were 9. Because of this we both love with Washington sports teams. I’m borderline obsessive. I probably look at sports forums every day, even in the off-season, hoping to find some good news. Sadly, this had made my life miserable because no Washington sports team has won anything since 1991.

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Four days ago, I don’t think I could have sat down at a poker table and truly felt fine if I lost a buy in. Downswings can be tough, losing a buy in can change your whole strategy. For me, it prevents me from making a big fold, making a bluff in good spots, and playing too weak/passive in general.

I used to have the idea that there is no reason why I can’t sit down at a table and play my A+ game as long as I have the intention to. As long as I try to focus as hard as I can, I will play well. But its simply not true. You can be tired, mad, angry, upset, hungry. You can’t always will yourself out of a bad mental or physical state. Occasionally, you need some sort of break to retool your thought process, keep you on point, and think about how to adjust to the opponent your playing. It can be in the form of a short break, where you just take 5 to 10 minutes to get a drink of water or lay back in your chair and do some analysis.

But it can also be a long break. This weekend I went to Vegas and forgot about online poker for a few days. When I came back last night and sat down at the tables, I felt refreshed. When I was in my downswing, my self-evaluation circuits went hay wire. My mind was so wrapped up in the downswing I failed to maintain a clear evaluation of how well I was playing.  But when I sat down last night, I was able to analyze clearly whether my play was good or bad, regardless of the results of my actions. And when that happens, whether I win or lose is irrelevant: I know I’m going to play at a level where I am going to win money in the long run.

Strive to be the best at poker, but don’t put unrealistic expectations on how well you can play all the time. You are going to have a session where your focus sucked,  your hand reading was poor, and your mistakes were plentiful. But a break can help turn that around. And over the course of a year, turning those B- sessions into B+ sessions can mean a hell of a lot of money.

For those who didn’t realize, my last post was an April Fools Joke bwahahaha. But there was a grain of truth to it.

So you know how I mentioned I was going to take a shot at some good players? Well besides my two Zugwat matches I am done with that, I never even got the chance. I lost pretty much all my winnings from march in the past 6-7 days. It was mostly all to fish too, that’s the really sick part. HU SNGs and HU Cash both went epically bad, I felt like I just couldn’t win. Its really frustrating and I have some thoughts floating through my head that I think everyone considers when they go through a downswing. Am I a bad poker player and have just been running well? Will this downswing ever stop? Am I too prone to tilt to win a lot of money? Do I have to fix something in my game? All this questioning I work through in my journal and process it so I can move on. I think through these past 6-7 days I truly ran terriblly bad and it is just a matter of time until I start up swinging again.

I read Max’s Don’t Be Lucks Bitch article today and it really helped me feel better about the DS. My strategy right now is to not play until Monday, because right now I’m not sure I can play my best if I lose a buy in or two. I’m going to play lower at HU SNGs and purely bum hunt HU cash for a little.

But life isn’t all bad! My girlfriend is coming to stay with me until the World Series on April 14th. I can’t even tell you how excited I am. We’ve been together for a long, long time but I find myself being more fond of her every day. She is incredibly sweet and loving. Her goofy and fun personality perfectly matches mine. It’ll be a nice time for me to chill and have a great time… as well as play a lot of Wii, watch our favorite twilight zone episodes, and play mad gab. She helps me get a good perspective on life when I’m depressed so its great timing for her to come out.

Its been all work and no play for me over the past few months, I’ll be happy to have some more play for the next 4 weeks.

Wish me luck!

I don’t know what to say right now, I just have totally failed at SNGs.

I think its time to move back to HU Cash where I DONT LOSE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.

Luckily, I still have a little bit left in my trust fund, maybe I can grind it back up? Please say some kind words.