Some Wasted Bankroll, But A Good Visit and Lesson
The lack in posts in my poker journal is reflective of the backseat that poker has taken in my life in the last few weeks. My new job is the most hectic I've had since my very early days at my job before this one. I'd forgotten how much work it takes to bring an organization through a major transitional period.
I've been keeping up with poker by playing an hour or so online each night, and six hours or so on the weekends, but nothing as intensive as what had become my typical playing schedule before my job got this way.
However, last night, I made an exception from that crazy work schedule, and took a half day today so that I could spend all night playing live poker. The special occasion was a visit to NYC by nick_marden, flying through for a conference after his time in Las Vegas with the whole crew from Greg's game. I was jealous that work ultimately caused me to miss the whole Las Vegas trip, which included dankhank's (unfortunately) one-day-only run in the WSoP Main Event. It would have been nice to see the old group again.
But, I was very glad to at least have Nick coming through my "poker domain". My idea was to give Nick a one-night crash course in the poker scene in NYC. We visited nearly every club from midtown down to Brooklyn, and Nick headed off to JFK airport from there at 05:30. Basically, the only clubs we skipped were the ones way far out in the outer boroughs. We even visited a few that I too was seeing for the first time.
Sadly, it was bad for my bankroll. At the first club, I quickly lost two and a third NL HE buy-ins ($700) in a matter of an hour and half, mostly in two specific hands. In both cases, post-analysis of my plays showed that while I couldn't have exited either situation unscathed, I could have easily reduced the total damage to around $200. The details of the hands don't matter that much; the point was I was playing marginal situations far too aggressively and recklessly.
After some sleep, I've thought over and realized that there's a lesson for me in those losses. I recall other big losing sessions, that also coincide with a return to live play after time away from it. As I review my emotional and mental state for early last night, I realize that these losses were caused by over-excitement of playing again after an unusual period away from the game. I enjoy the decision-making process of poker, and of course the more challenging the decisions, the more fun it is. However, there are higher chances of making a big mistake when the decisions are challenging. Those challenges are exacerbated further by being even just a little (i.e., three weeks) out of practice from live game situations.
The lesson learned for me is that I must learn to control this tendency. Even if I've been away only for a week or two from live poker, I should try to go to a game that is small, even if for a few hours. For example, sitting for an hour in a $3/$6 limit game --- just to acclimate myself to building the right table image and comfort zone for live play -- would have probably gotten me in the right state of mind to join Nick in the $1/$2 NL game. I would have seen and noticed more during those terrible hands and made some better decisions.
I realized a few things as this "fish for the moment" shipped his second buy-in off --- off to a fellow fish who got lucky that my mistakes were only slightly worse than his. I knew that my table image at this club was shot. Buying in again was more reckless a move than the one I'd just made. I needed a break, even just for a few minutes. Since we were headed to more clubs anyway, there was no point to play another hand that night at this club. I spent the rest of the time-period sitting next to Nick, pretending to watch him play, but instead spacing out a bit, clearing my head before we went on to more clubs. I then proceeded to make back $200 of my $700 losses with clear-headed, tight-aggressive play. While I did pay bit too much for this lesson about acclimating myself to live game play after time away, I am glad that I have now learned it regardless. I hope my backer, whom I proudly made a $240 payment to this past week, won't mind a dip in profits this week for a lesson learned.