Thoughts Inspired By Mystery Woman #22

The Wolf started this game on his blog where he puts up a picture of a woman and his readers try to be the quickest to identify her. I am incredibly good at this game. I even surprise myself sometimes. I have long thought I have a poor memory, but playing this game has shown I have a strong natural talent at remembering faces and connecting them with names.

My prowess in this game got me thinking a little more deeply about some things I've thought about in the past without really exploring. I play poker for a living, it's what "I do" or at least what I say when people ask me what "I do." Really what I do is hang out with friends, walk around in the mountains, go to the gym, play a lot of games (including poker), watch sports, travel a lot, drink a lot of beer, surf the net, watch a lot of movies, go to a lot of restaurants, watch television shows on DVD, and write. Although these are the things I do the most, they are not really the things I am best at. I do them because I enjoy them and I don't have anything "better" to do. I play poker because I enjoy it a lot and because I make more money doing it than anything else I could do right now.

I know, however, that I am not one of the best poker players in the world and never will be. My talent for poker is not as great as it is for the Mystery Woman game. I wonder if I should "do" something else, something that I have a chance to be the best at. I have always known I could be the greatest poker writer in the short history of the genre if I chose (no offense Jeremiah).

Although I have won more money playing poker the last eight months than any other period during my career, I feel these results are not necessarily sustainable. I have been running hot, as they say, particularly late in big tournaments. In the "good old days", it was much easier to make money. Party Poker was so reliable. Today, the 10-20 and 25-50 games are difficult. I am a much better player now than I was two years ago, but I don't win as consistently. A solid but unspectacular tournament player like myself cannot really count on the big scores needed to win on the tournament circuit - and now I can't really depend on the online cash games either.

I am looking to get out, eventually. A year ago I tried, sort of, but then got sucked back into the game. It was fortunate for me to get sucked back in, as I have managed to string together some nice results since the return. However, I still believe as I did then that I should try to find something else to "do" with my life. I have ideas, as I did a year ago, that I want to explore. Brewing and selling beer is still one of those ideas, and I know a lot more about it now than a year ago. Writing is another, though it is somewhat fanciful as I have never managed to complete a decent work of more than a few pages and never even got started on a big poker writing idea that has been kicked around for almost a year now.

But this is all a ways off. Tournament poker will be the focus from now until mid-summer, and it should be the most exciting period of my career. Tonight the FTOPS starts. PiMaster, MasterJ and I are on a team putting up $5k in a winner take all pool for FTOPS results on pocketfives. On Monday I will begin a month-long road trip that hits New Mexico, Arizona, LA (for the LAPC), San Jose for the Shooting Star, and Vegas for the main event at the Wynn. A similar road trip led to my retirement last year; I can't see that happening this time.

The period from mid-March to the beginning of the WSOP is murkier. The EPT San Remo and Monte Carlo back-to-back will get heavy consideration, as will late-May WPT sharkfests in Vegas. Another jaunt to Caesar's Indiana might be in the cards. If something crazy happens and I final table one of these 10k events the next month, then I may say screw it and go all out for the rest of 2008, Nam Le style.

One more thing is certain - the 2008 WSOP will be the wildest, most intense, most exciting time of my career. That begins the end of May and ends in mid July. After that, it will be time to reevaluate.