Thirty Days of Blogging: Day 7

We got back from Vegas yesterday afternoon after passing a pleasant weekend sleeping, eating out, and going to the gym.  Yes, I actually went to the gym in Vegas (the wife went twice!)  It's this new health kick I'm on.  It's gotten so I start to feel physically...wrong if I don't do some kind of workout.  I also have less desire to eat rich meals and drink good wine than I used to.  Which makes Vegas a bit of an ill fit, vacation-wise.  But we still had fun.

Another joy that's lessened for me considerably over the years: poker.  I don't know why, but sitting for hours by myself at a poker table no longer holds much excitement for me.  (It's different when I'm with friends.)  This weekend, though, I wanted to play at least six hours; that's what it takes to get a poker room rate for one night at the Venetian.  (Interesting info: they apply the poker room rate to your MOST expensive night.  Which is pretty sporting of them.)

To keep myself from playing "Bored Poker"--in which I raise every hand, pretend I'm Phil Ivey, get called down by a lot of people with middle pairs on four flush boards, and then go on tilt--I played 2/5.  I played a super-tight ABC game; I made only two bluffs the entire seven hours I played (and in one I was probably bluffing with the best hand).  I caught decent cards and ended up winning about 1500$.  And yet, in the end, it wasn't all that much fun.  I mean, yes, it's obviously fun to win (way better than losing) but, I don't know.  2/5 no longer holds much excitement for me.  If I play my game, and I don't get sucked out on, I think over the long run, I can beat that game, in the average Vegas casino.  But "my game", the game I play to win at those stakes, is pretty unimaginative; it basically involves doing what the books all say--trying to only play hands in position, folding a lot pre flop, and basically only betting big when I have a hand that's better than top pair.

And then, too, even when you win, or even when I win, I feel somewhat dissatisfied.  Because you can always play better.  You could have always won MORE.  I made a few mistakes this weekend--I played a B+ game, I'd say--that, had I not made, would have upped my win total to about 2000.

Tomorrow: an example of a hand I won, but, in the end, misplayed.