Getting my mojo back.
My life isn’t too hectic, but I’m still trying to achieve a balance in it, I don’t want to burn out, get disinterested, or neglect any part of what I’m doing, because it just plain frustrates me. I’ve basically divided my week up into sections dedicated to poker, health and fitness, sleeping, working, socialising, and free time. Note that socialising isn’t classed as free time since it isn’t a default action of mine, it’s something I have to actively pursue or else it goes by the wayside.
Went to the gym this morning for two hours, got one of their trainers to basically show me how to use all the equipment properly and set out an exercise plan for me, I didn’t really understand how much pain running on their little hamster wheel for 20 minutes straight would cause me, but it’s all for the better. Diet will come naturally, since hating my body comes naturally, I’ll associate bad food with more exercise and that synaptic epiphany will be the classical conditioning stimulus I need.
So onto poker, I’ve been instructed to finish two books before I get left alone with a decent roll for 25nl, the books I’ll talk about later, but let me just say, they are primo quality.
I’ve been watching Skelm play and it’s like bloody frogger, he has the ability to aggressively press out into the traffic, yet dodge buses and cars that are trying to run him down, it’s beautiful. We’ve been discussing lots of different topics, and I’ve made a point of asking any questions that popped up, and to have him explain any alternate views on my study material, which just makes things confusing when a book says one thing, and he says another… theres only 3 fucking buttons on the screen and your opinion deviates from the book? But with every deviation theres a reason, and a plan for future streets.
I was doing a little bit of question asking about dividing stacks, which became pretty interesting. Simply, if you end up heads up, you are obviously only able to play for a pot the size of the smallest stack, and the stack sizes should be taken into consideration pre-flop. Looking to whoever will take action behind you, you can decide how you are going to play. If you are playing deep stacked with opponents who are also deep stacked, the chances of going all-in are less, so theres more room for bluffing, and more weight in aggressive play.
But if other players are short-stacked, you can run into lots of problems, like expecting to semi-bluff on the flop and turn against a tighter opponent with a decent hand, only to find out the pot is $20 and your opponent only has $2 left. If your opponent called you without you realising their stack was short, you could have essentially created an accidental all-in situation you didn’t want to be in, and more importantly, an all-in situation your opponent DOES want to be in. Situations like this will cause you to call marginal hands on drawy boards because you have set up stupid pot odds for yourself all because you didn’t take the time to notice the stack size.
I’ve made the mistake before, and it’s really just a concentration thing, making sure you take notice of stack sizes so you can play the hand properly, and only create all-in situations when you want it, or only have them created when you can back out without too much loss when you’r behind.
