A Trip Back to Where it All Began

Tomorrow, Toots and I are heading to Uncasville to spend a couple of days basking in the gratis glory of the Mohegan Sun Casino.  She was the recipient of a gesture of largesse from her boss, who told her to get out of here, you crazy kids, and have a good time.

So I will be spending most of my time in the poker room, hoping the list for the $1/$2NL game isn't that long, and hoping for all the world that I don't duplicate the results of the last time I played poker there - which was actually the very first time I ever sat down at the felt and compared my skill to that of others.

It did not go well.

It was around 2002 or 2003.  It was right around Moneymaker time - but I had caught the bug the previous year, with Robert Varkonyi.  Does anyone remember him?  He was this nebbish little dude who never played a big tournament and who won the 2002 WSOP and 2 million squeeds. By the way, no flash in the pan, he; thus far he's cashed in three WSOP main events, finishing 177th out of over 6,000 in 2007 for over 50 grand, and cashing small in 2011, around 500th place or so.  Anyway, for me, it was Varkonyi who captured my imagination, so I perceived myself as having a one-year head start over everyone else.  So brimming with completely unfounded confidence I walked into the poker room, found a 2-4 limit table with an empty seat, and sat down.

It was then that I learned that one doesn't just sit down at a poker table, that there is a desk at which one must register, and that I should hie myself there and get out of that seat right the hell away.

You know how it goes from there, right?  We all probably remember our first time with a wince and a cringe.  I tried checking pre-flop, I stuck money in with hands I had zero business being in, and generally wore a big sign that said "N00b fishcake" in big letters, that lit up when it was dark.

I remember nobody at the table saying a word, but I caught a few sideways glances which spoke volumes.  Let me tell you guys something: the old saw that says "look around the table - if you can't spot the fish, it's you" was 100% accurate for me.

I lost my stake in perhaps 45 hard-charging minutes, and I vowed that I wouldn't sit down at a casino poker table again unless and until I got a lot better. It was an expensive education.  It took me a while to figure out, for example, that I preferred NL to FL; longer still to realize that I'm shit in tournaments but reasonably successful in cash games. In fact, a propos of nothing, I sat down last night at BCP for a $.50/$1NL game and was up by almost a full buy-in before I started falling asleep and giving some of it back. God help me, I just love winning at poker.

Of course every bit of knowledge or insight I gained came at a cost; when FullTilt (ptooey! I spit on their grave) was around I would bust out regularly and have to refill my account.  But eventually I got the requisite 100,000 hands under my belt and learned the thousand or so things you need to know about the odds, one's opponent, and oneself to make a go at being a successful poker player.

At this point the biggest hole in my game is my reaction to a losing session.  Logically, intellectually, I know that I will have a losing session here and there; but they really spook me, so much so that no matter how much success I've been having, a losing session will prevent me from driving to Foxwoods and playing cards for months.  I have to learn to handle that better; to realize that it's part of the game, and that hitting one's stop-loss means get up from the table, head over to the buffet (after first making sure that it's prime rib at the carving station), drown my sorrows in sweet meat drippins, and drive home.

I have had enough success at 1/2NL that I'm ahead at that game, so logic would dictate that I should keep playing, which will have the added side benefit of me getting better.  I should, I ought to, I'd better - hollow phrases all, that shrink next to a phrase like I will. Overcoming that is the next mountain to climb, and if I make that, there actually might be some real money coming my way.

I really ought to try.  In any event, that's where I'll be this week. I'll let you know how I do.