Life lessons

Do you have feel like you do the same things in life over and over again in numerous aspects? When I do something for the first time I research it to death, make sure I do as good a job as I can at it, and am very focused on what I am doing. In general when I do those things I succeed. This is in and of itself a marvelous thing... however once I do something and succeed at it I either get overconfident or lackadaisical and then start to suck at it.

It happens in poker, sports betting and in life and it leads to a rather vicious cycle of succeeding at something, then failing, then re-analyzing and succeeding again, etc.

Sports betting has gone into the failing cycle as I was/am becoming very confident and betting on too many games in too many ways. The end result is an 8 day losing streak that really sucks! The good news is it has been counter-balanced by a good run in poker where I have re-analzyed my play and really improved. I have started to play more within myself and wait for my spots. I managed to cash back to back tournaments last week and have been doing very well at the cash games.

The one thing I have really improved on is quitting. Giving up on a hand when I THINK I am beat but don't want to be (a big problem I have... I want to win the hand, even though I know I am losing). Also, a huge part of poker is confidence and when you are playing with a lot of confidence the other people believe you.

In the past 2 weeks I made a guy lay down QQ on a 9 high no flush, no straight board as he was 100% sure I had flopped a set. I thought he had AK and my 5 I hit was good... the reality was it didn't matter because I had a HUGE amount of confidence in my hand and he believed me. Another hand I made a woman lay down the same exact hand I did, simply by believing my hand was better. (actually made the same lady lay down basically the same hand as I had twice in less than an hour).

The key to just about everything in life is confidence, confidence in yourself, confidence in your play, confidence in your decisions. Many times your decisions are poor... but even then if you have confidence in them and keep your head about you you can turn poor decisions (such as pushing all in with 4-5 suited on a 9-5-2 board against Q-Q) into good results. Then you just have to keep yourself from getting OVER confident which is the fine line I have to walk and one which is (and probably always will be) a challenge for me. So far I have been keeping over-confidence out of my poker game, and I have to keep focused on that. I also have to remember that even though I may know more about poker and in fact be a better player than them.. I don't have to show them that EVERY hand.. it is ok to let a few get away, pick your spots as they say.

I have been playing a little more poker lately with a couple of runs at the trasure island tournament and a couple of Venentians. My last venetian I went really deep but just missed the money finishing 28th out of 140 but they paid 18.

I played exceptionally well and patient, except for one thing. When I have a good hand but a bad flop I WANT to win the pot. I just couldn't back off the hand and ended up giving away a lot of chips. At the 3rd break I had 15K and I had given away 20K just because I wanted to win the chips.. I can be so patient pre-flop picking my spots, and staying out of trouble. Then I get into a hand and all that goes out the window.

I played Treasure Island on Wednesday night and did much better, keeping my nose clean and riding some nice conservative play (and a nice suckout with 22 vs AA) into the final table and a 4 way chop. Add this in with a nice win in the cash game this past weekend and I finished this week up. Been awhile since that happened and hopefully I can keep it rolling this weekend.

Sports betting is going well as well, hitting 3 out of 4 second halves and only missing the Neworleans 2nd half on a stupid late FG when they were trying to run out the clock and "accidently" got into FG range and kicked it.

I have started watching for a very specific 2nd half situation which is cashing at a monsterous rate. Large favorites who are trailing at the half, this bet has been super-money so far and I expect it to continue. It isn't a surpise for a big favorite to lose, but they normally find a way to come back and make it close. Perfect examples this past weekend Oakland led SD 15-0. SD was a 9 pt favorite. I got SD -7 for the 2nd half.. no way Oakland beats SD by more than a TD, they might end up winning by 3, but SD *IS* going to come back. Same thing on the Dallas/Washington game.

Looking forward to a big weekend of Poker at the venetian and some nice football. GOO ALABAMA! I want a rematch in the SEC championship game bitches!