Tenacity

I got up a couple hours before the tournament today (and yesterday), exercised, and showered. I felt ready to play. Paul was at my starting table and his presence inspired me to play some fierce poker. Paul was absolutely annihalating the table with an extremely well-timed array of squeezes and big hands, getting the trickier players to make huge mistakes and pushing around the weaker ones. His table presence is really strong. That's something I could work on, but I'm not really sure how.

I've always been sort of a scrappy type when it comes to competition. I'm not athletically gifted or wildly talented in other ways. Early on I developed a wicked competitiveness that I've leaned on throughout my life. Recently I've been getting lazy and not always pouring everything I can into my games. The low point came the other day when I lost to PiMaster in NBA Jam.

Today I played HARD. I never had a pair bigger than threes but I was scrapping and bluffing and trying to find ways to win pots and pouncing on any weakness I saw. It didn't work out, and I sort of misplayed my bustout hand, but I think today may have been the first step towards becoming a more potent tournament player.