Poker Salvation

A week ago I was depressed. I generally believe that poker players should not play unless they are feeling good about everything in their life. I feel it is crucial to get your life squared away before you sit down at the tables and put your money up for grabs. So I wasn't playing. In this instance my lack of playing was contributing to my depression, but I didn't realize that at the time. I wasn't accomplishing anything on a daily basis and felt useless.

My friend Napoleon, an investment banker from the Bay Area, came into town last week. Napoleon has a great love for the game and an infectious zeal for life and everything he does. He's one of my favorites. He came over to my house last week most days and we played joint sessions. I hadn't planned on playing the rest of the year because of a troubling superstition which I will explain in a later post but as soon as Nappy arrived I felt like playing every day.

Nappy's arrival was a turning point for me. He would come over and we would play and get some exercise before or after the session and then do something social and always have a great time.

I remember this one time we were playing shorthanded - a couple players limped in and we made a big raise from the blind with ace-king. The first limper called and the flop came something ugly like jack-nine-seven. We bet it anyways and he called. The turn was an eight that gave anyone with a ten a straight. We checked and he made a moderate bet. It suddenly occurred to me that he'd probably bet anything there and we could represent pocket tens. I suggested a 2.5x raise and we executed. Our opponent quickly folded.

I got pretty pumped about it. Half an hour later I was still saying stuff like "Dude, how about that bluff?!"

It turned out to be a very good week and I had fun every day. The poker with Napoleon turned the tide I think. An efficient two hour session making some money made me feel a lot better about the day and my life. Socially it was a fabulous week - I felt like I fed off those poker sessions a little bit.

I learned this week, as I learned throughout 2007, that poker can inspire me to live a better life.

I am fliyng to Australia this evening for the Aussie Millions in Melbourne. I know that this will be a fantastic trip regardless of the poker results. I hope that the poker, and the overall experience, will be a springboard for my bold New Year's Resolution for 2008: to have the best year of my life so far.