Saturday, August 7, 2010

Poker and Sports Betting

I'm sitting here on a unusual muggy Saturday night in Las Vegas, thinking about what to blog about....watching the Nationals/Dodgers game (game is tied 2-2 top of 7th). I'm a little under the weather..not sure why. I think I forgot to wash my hands throughly after my shift at work. I always make it a point to wash my hands when I get off work..When you handle chips, cards, and money all day...you get all kinds of germs sticking to your hands..not something you want everyday.

Not much poker playing lately. Last Saturday morning and played 1-2 No Limit at Planet Hollywood. I was at the perfect table. We had two drunks with a ton of chips, spewing their chips to everyone at the table....everyone except myself..lol. It was one of those sessions where if I was in a pot with these drunks they always had the nuts...and bluffing their money to everyone else..I couldn't catch a break...200 bucks later..I was done for the day.

The session was a bit of a wake up call for me. Although I know I'm a very good cash game player, I just don't have the proper bankroll to handle the swings you'll encounter in cash games. So I decided to eat a piece of humble pie and go back to playing limit poker exclusively mixed in tournaments. When I first started played I built my bankroll playing 3-6 through 10-20 Limit poker, and has tremendous success. Even when the "poker boom" was in full force, I was reluctant to move to no limit because I was having success in limit. Circumstances caused me to shift my attention to no limit cash games...The no limit genre was swallowing up all the limit games to the point where all the good limit game dried up. The Mirage 6-12 and the Bellagio 8-16 disappeared replaced by the no limit monster...It sucked, but had to accept the change or be left behind. I actually adjusted well to no limit, and won most of my sessions, but lately the losses have been bigger and psychological part of the game was waning on me...For the first time in the 11 years I've played poker...I lost confidence in my game. I began to ask myself questions...AM I still good? Will I ever beat the game again? Should I give it up?

I think stepping back and reanalyzing the games I'm playing and going back to limit will hopefully give me the confidence back.

In the meantime, I've been having success betting sports...beisbol has been very good to me. Someday, I'd like to bet sports and play poker for a living. It's baby steps I've been taking..It proper money management and looking for the value picks that has been the key to my success. You can't always bet Verlander, Carpenter, and Lincecum because the sports betting marketplace is giving you no value. I've learned to treat sports betting like day trading...you make calculated risk based on information you gathered...then watched how it comes out...it's a beautiful thing to a successful sports bettor...

To my friends who don't gamble...I'm not reckless with my money...my kids are taking care of and my bills are paid, but this is something I like to do and I'm good at it...

Till my next blog...follow your dreams....dont let anyone say you can't do something...

No comments: