Hard Work

I slaved away most of the afternoon and all of the evening on Party Poker...

Quite often we use words like "slaved" and "grinded" to describe a few hours sitting at a computer console, listening to music, chatting on instant messenger, and playing a game. At the time it does feel a bit like "grinding", whatever that is. There are long periods of semi-boredom, and it can be very frustrating. But come on. It's not as boring or frustrating as

Bagging groceries
Bussing tables
Sorting through boxes in a warehouse

Even those lousy jobs would be greatly appreciated by a lot of people. And playing poker, even when it's not going swimmingly, is still a lot more fun than any of those jobs. When I was doing those jobs all I could think about was the future - what I would do that night when work was over, what I would do later in the summer when I quit the job, what I would do when I "grew up."

Well, I'm all grown up now and I'm living the dream. I really am. I didn't do any kind of "work" for money for three straight weeks recently. I get to travel around the country pretty much whenever and wherever I want. I play a game for a living.

So it's pretty disgusting to think about me complaining about bad beats, bitching cause I'm up "only a couple thousand" on a session, or whining about my "bad luck", when in reality there should be no such thing as a bad beat when you are a professional poker player, you should be grateful to win "only a couple thousand" and in fact I might be the luckiest person I know.

All this afternoon and early evening I "grinded" it out. I was up "only a couple thousand" for about four straight hours. I really believe I was playing well, just as I believe I played well yesterday when I lost about 8k. The cards just weren't hitting as much as they're "supposed" to and I took a couple rough beats as well. In the poker sense of the word, it really was a "grind." Of course sitting in the basement listening to Bloc Party clicking the mouse isn't exactly unpleasant.

The Wolf showed up around 6:30 to grind it out alongside me in the basement on the sketchy wireless connection. While the Wolf played tourneys on Party and Stars I kept putt-putting along on the 2k tables. I must say I was bitching quite a bit to the Wolf and he put up with it like a good friend should. I kept saying things like "just ONCE I want to get lucky and flop a set" and "learning how to deal with all these shitty cards is going to make me such a better player." The Wolf told me to keep my head up and continue to grind, and never told me the truth, that I was being a baby and horrible runs of cards and bad luck are parts of the game that any professional needs to be able to handle. I also told him that "when the rush hits it's going to be so strong, no one including me is going to even know what happened."

The rush finally hit as evening turned into night and I massacred the tables for several hours on end, winning pot after pot while losing no significant ones. Finally the cards came and the old familiar feeling of taking down aces with 7-5 suited came back to me. It has been a long time since I've had a nice rush and this was one of the biggest ever. Special thanks to the Wolf for supporting me and not clocking me cold during the whining.

I wrapped up the session and joined the Wolf for a $50 tourney on Party that started at 1. Both of us had good chips at different times during the tournament and we both took crucial bad beats in disgusting fashion. This was the Wolf's, shortly after hitting the money:

Seat 1: AllnTim (9230)
Seat 2: TREX38 (11920)
Seat 3: LepSep (7444)
Seat 4: vegasmomxx (3780)
Seat 5: ih8dancox (13108)
Seat 6: SunPoker3D (8877)
Seat 7: TheGraveWolf (8876)
Seat 8: thebull8881 (13538)
Seat 9: sam90802 (13878)
TheGraveWolf posts small blind (200)
thebull8881 posts big blind (400)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to TheGraveWolf [ As, Ac ]
sam90802 folds.
AllnTim folds.
TREX38 calls (400)
LepSep folds.
vegasmomxx folds.
ih8dancox raises (1100) to 1100
SunPoker3D folds.
TheGraveWolf raises (3100) to 3300
thebull8881 folds.
TREX38 folds.
ih8dancox calls (2200) (immediately)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 7d, 9d, 9h ]
TheGraveWolf bets (5576)
TheGraveWolf is all-In.
ih8dancox calls (5576)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 5h ]
** Dealing River ** : [ 8d ]
Creating Main Pot with $18552 with TheGraveWolf
** Summary **
ih8dancox balance 22784, bet 8876, collected 18552, net +9676 [ Qd Ad ] [ a flush, ace high]TheGraveWolf balance 0, lost 8876 [ As Ac ] [ two pairs, aces and nines]

A rough way to end the night as he would have been in great position to make another final table. But he can't bitch about it, because he gets to play a game for a living.

___

Today: +15776
Year to date: +13783