Wednesday 21 January 2009

'Oh my god I'm coming night and day'


I've Played under 100 hands of pokay this week and it doesn't look like that will increase til the weekend. One thing I always found difficult when playing poker was a balance, or should I say the lack of it. When I was emmersed in the poker world so to speak, it became all I did. If I was on the internet it was poker related (or porn obv - who am I to kid?). If I was watching TV it was High Stakes Poker/Poker After Dark/Wsop etc (or porn obv)and even anything I talked about had a gambling slant to it. With Poker I think its hard to not fall into that trap, especially as you're often surrounded by people who do exactly the same.

I began to fall into that trap to a much lesser extent (but still too much) the last two months and playing online particularly during the week was detracting from my gym routine to the point where I stopped going. Playing so much has a knock on effect on your social life and even work.

I'm now well and truly back into the gym and while I'm still a little weaker than I was two months ago I come home from work and go straight to the gym instead of logging on as fast as possible and loading tables up. When I get home I have a shake, some food and a shower before going to bed at about 11-pm-midnight. Having a good night's sleep is making the week's go faster (even though I'm not really enjoying my job atm- but that's something I'll discuss in another post) and generally I feel a lot more positive. It's no easier coming in to work after winning or losing £2k the night before so I'm keeping poker to an absolute minimum during the week and just going to play at weekends now. I'm gonna gym so hard for the next few months! (The title of this blog was inspired by a legendary gym related quote from the great Arnie himself in Pumping Iron - if you haven't seen it - watch it it's so fucking funny, though not meant to be).

Thanks for the comments in the last post too - I'm gonna follow their advice and stay playing really low and grind up because that's a necessary quality of a poker player. Just because I have the resources to play higher, it doesn't mean I should - even if it's boring I gotta learn some discipline and patience and grind it out. I'm sure it'll feel like an accomplishment in a month or two's time when I've won enough buy ins to move up.

I realise this entry probably isn't particularly well written but I'm wrting in rather a hurry during my lunch break at work and just getting things off my chest as they come in to my head. I'd love to know who the anon comments are from too - whether insulting or helpful I honestly appreciate every one.

In the meantime I'll leave you with a photo (at the top of the blog as I'm too noobish to know how to put it below) that was sent round the office today. Its from the Ozzie Telegraph. A brilliant piece of creative media buying!

Laters

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Lol, that picture is awesome!

Think the healthy body/health mindframe thing is a good idea, I remember running really good one summer when I frequented the gym.

I find it hard to stay disciplined too man. Posting a blog helps, cos now everyone will know when I've donked it off, and it feels like an achievement when I stick to my guns and grind it out.

Poker can take over that is true, have to make sure you don't get too engrossed in it, and the occasional break is a must.

Good luck grinding!

rubbish said...

Hi,

Been reading your blog recently and have just started my own. I've linked you up and hope you can do likewise if you like mine. Here's the details:

http://rubbishatpoker.blogspot.com/

All the best for 2009.