Journal of a Poker Pro

People say a lot of things about poker. Two of my favourite sayings are; 1. It's a hard way to make an easy living, and 2. It's a great job... if you can forget about it. The latter is the focus of my post.

I couldn't sleep very well last night. Before I fell asleep I was mulling over why I was having such a lackluster month -- even while I slept I kept dreaming of poker. And it wasn't anything exciting like playing in the WSOP, it was a boring, tedious dream of me grinding away at my computer (and doing poorly, at that). I wish this wouldn't occupy my mind - I'm smart enough to know this is variance. But whatever, I need to justify this month to myself, so here goes:

There have been 15 hands this month where I've won over $100. In all of these hands I got another player to put a lot of money in once they were behind. In not one do I put my own money in with the worst of it (the closest was getting all in on the flop as only a 52% favourite with the nut flush draw and a pair vs. an overpair). I'd say about 3 of them were tough spots for my opponents to fold (One flush over flush, and two full houses vs. straights).

There have been 10 hands this month where I've lost over $100. Two of these were flush over flushes (My K high vs. and Ace high, and my J high vs. a Q high). Both times the money went in on the turn, and both were against pretty bad players who could've had a much worse holding. Both of these were also $400 pots. Another big pot had me turning a flush and a solid player semi-bluffing me all in with the nut draw ( He was about 15% to win and did). That pot was $300. The worst one was a $400 pot where I got all in on the turn with AQ vs. AJ on a 8-A-2-A board. I'm a 90% favourite, and unfortunatley the jack hit the river. The last (barely) mentionable one had someone hitting their flush draw versus my set in a $200 pot (all in on flop). Three or four of the other hands could've been avoidable in retrospect.

This really illustrates the variance in poker. I mean, two huge hands where I was over 85% to win went the wrong the way and my month has been shitty. If those hands hold up I have at least doubled my take for the month (both hands total $700). And if one of those flush vs. flushes goes my way, thats $800 more!

This has been theraputic for me, and I hope my luck swings in the right direction soon.