Back again from Vegas

Last minute changes to my schedule 10 days ago meant that I ended up at Gatwick with no bl**dy laptop.  For the first time in years my hard disk crashed the night before I was due to depart.  

ARGH!  The agony.  Its strange how not having a laptop for such a long period of time actually affects your life.  No webcam, no email (apart from the Blackberry)  and of course no log.  So thankfully on arrival back in the UK this morning my laptop was ready to run, and in top working order.  It was quite an interesting experience, but not one that I want to repeat to be honest.

I suppose I could have just run the the shops and purchased a new one, but with the £ plunging against the $ I'm really glad that I didn't.  Oh well - back on deck and able to write.  

Oh, and Vegas?  It was superb.  Definitely MORE people there than usual - we all know that gaming/gambling rises in a recession, but I would say there were 20% more people there than I was expecting.    The client was good fun too.  Quite a good poker player already, but psychologically all over the shop.  y the time I left I reckon we had got rid of the bulk of the reasons he would tilt.  Superb time had by all.

Playing poker to win? No. Feeling sick.

Playing poker for me has been a bad dream since Friday, when I woke up with an appalling headache.  Since then I've had a stinking cold and playing poker just isn't possible.  Even online if I play poker with a cold I lose.  It really is as simple as that.  To play poker and win I have to feel really good.

So I have not been paying poker, I have been sitting in bed.  Pathetically watching TV and feeling sorry for myself.  That's not poker playing, that's just feeble.  Hardly surprising though as the weather has been dire as well.

More when I feel better.

Long week of poker

Its been a long week for me.  Poker has been of course on the menu, but so has the terrible weather.  Its just been horrible in the UK so I haven't been outside at all basically.  That makes it a long old week.  Sitting in front of a screen for 4 hours a day can be very boring.  The money was good - playing 4 sit and go tournaments at a time is easy and quite stimulating mentally, but the truth is that often I just miss having people to speak to.

Even the lessons I have given this week were online.  The clients and I use Skype to talk to each other and then we can share a screen at the same time across the internet.  Its clever stuff, but not quite the same as being able to sit and chat.  No matter though, the clients being mentored liked it, so thats all that matters in reality.  We set some poker goals for them over the next three months and played some head to head so I could assess how good they were.  As it turned out one was a complete novice and one was not bad at all.

The novice is going to work their way through all thirty video lessons on poker and then get back to me for more one to one poker tuition.  Meanwhile the guy who is a good online player wants to go to a casino, so we're heading off to Vegas in seven days time to make it work for him.  Vegas is still the place to have some real poker fun, and that's where he wants to go, so as it fits in with my schedule then off we'll toddle.  Virgin Atlantic as ever!  Pity really as I would like to fly BA but they are always so much more expensive

That's if for now.  Here's hoping that the weather is nicer for tomorrow and that I get to go to the casino for a few hands Friday evening.

Luck cards.

Sunday no poker day!

Its Sunday again and tomorrow it's time to make some money playing poker.  

Sunday I rarely play poker.  Its not really a religious thing, but Sunday is a family day.  I would always recommend that any poker player, no matter how much you love poker, always leave one day free for other things.  No matter how good you are playing poker or how bad you are playing poker - a break from poker is not a bad thing.  For me it works just great to not even look at a deck of cars or an online site.

Which makes me think - why the hell am I updating my poker blog?

Thats it.  Enough.  I'm going offline.

best

Saturday Night's Alright!

What a great day.  The weather is appalling here in the UK, but in a strange way that makes it even better to be a poker player!  Why? Because it's always sunny when you are playing poker in a wonderful casino or poker online in a nice comfy chair.  In fact it is quite funny to realise that playing poker online is one of the very few things that you do from the comfort of your own living room.  There are some days that I really love doing that.

But it's not all a one way street.  There are other days when sitting there alone can be pretty depressing.  That's why I play the mix of casino poker and online poker that I do.  I like the interaction with people that live play gives me, and in a funny way I enjoy the isolation that being alone online gives me as well.  

It's the same reason that I teach poker to people.  Social interaction.  It's a great feeling to work WITH people not against them.  It's completely enjoyable.  The people I work with are always nice people, and just about all of them become friends.  Poker is like that.  It breeds mainly nice people in my experience.  Poker players who can control their emotions and learn to play poker to the best of their abilities are just about always enjoyable people to be around.  I haven't worked out why yet, but I think it is something about it being good to have knowledge that you are performing to the highest level in at least one area of your life.  

Maybe I'm just feeling wistful right now, but I am pretty poor at many things.  I have been a terrible father at times and a hopeless husband.  Perhaps the knowledge of being good at at least one thing keeps me sane a cheerful.  Most of the time thats the case.  There are other times that I am simply depressed.  But that's something much deeper than just poker.  And thats for another day.

Best, and lucky cards.

Not a bad start

OK.  So as promised here is a brief update on how Karen did on her first casino trip to play poker.  It was interesting.  Firstly she looked stunning (yes thats nothing to do with poker, but she really did). 

Karen started off very slowly - exactly as we had agreed.  Playing poker in a very tight way.  In fact she folded for her first seven hands.  She was starting to get frustrated, but remembered that she simply had to play to the rules and she would statistically end up a winner.

I don't think Karen was really aware of just how much time playing poker in a casino can consume or how tiring it can be.  I had to remind here several times to keep drinking, and only to drink water.  

The competition was quite good, although there were two lads who were part of a stag night that were, shall we say, thinking of other things I suspect :-)

How did Karen do on her first trip to a casino?  Well, she came third from ten and played for three hours for free (she covered her costs with the prize money in the comp).  Had it not been for  a rush of blood to her head and playing a weak hand too aggressively Karen could well have finished second.  Not a bad first showing for her, and she left keen to play again as soon as possible.  Her next lesson with me is next week - stand by for more on her poker odyssey.

Best

Poker in Luton

Of all places.  Poker in Las Vegas on the Wednesday, Poker in Luton on the Thursday.  Thats Poker!  The opposition in Luton though is really tough.  That's what people forget, just because Las Vegas has a lot of poker players doesn't mean that they are any good.  Many is the time I've won $5k in Las Vegas and lost it in a local casino in the UK.

One of the things that my team and I always say to our students is that the venue for poker is not completely irrelevant, just largely irrelevant.  The main thing is that you prepare for each session in the same way.  Positive attitude, drink plenty and be rested.  So for tonight I am taking one of my students to play her first session at a casino.  Update tomorrow on how she does, but I have cautioned her to take only £20 and that's her lot for tonight.  It's a mini-tournament, so maybe she will be out quickly but who knows?  She has to start somewhere and as I say with the course that we sell we show you how to make your first £10 playing poker.  

Good luck Karen.  You can do it, and I'll be there to watch.

Best

Lucky cards and major skill.