Endless Bragging

After a rocky start to the year I had a few nice cashes at the end of January to finish up 14k for the month. I immediately booked a 19 day trip to Mexico (Portland winters are murderous) and took the week off to plan for the trip and relax as in my head I wrote February off as a non playing month.

So then I spend 19 days travelling the Yucatan having a fantastic time with Carrie, on my Very first day back I bink the 35k K.O. on FTP for 10.5k while playing a warm up 4 tabling session - totally loaded.

I promptly took that as a sign from the gods that everything I've been doing is totally synced with what the universe wants for me, and since what I had been doing was whatever I wanted, I've continued to do that which doesn't happen to always include much poker. Especially not sober poker.

Is combining weed with poker a great idea? It's not the greatest, but I limit myself to 6 tables at a time, and I think cumulatively I'm paying so much more attention to the dynamics and action at the particular tables that it's enough of a significant increase to ROI to offset the potential bad aspects of playing loaded. I don't recommend playing loaded if you aren't comfortable with your general game plan. You need to be able to realize that you are starting to play weak passive for instance, and be able to adjust for that and perhaps even be able to capitalize on your opponents recent perception of you as a weak tight player.

I focus on playing tight- really pretty tight in general- but I'm also always on the look out for reasons to open up my game as I think nailing those little opportunities regularly is a big part of what makes the difference between a highly successful mtt player and a mediocre one. Those little spots really add up over time and help you weather many inevitable storms that could otherwise be devastating if a few extra chips hadn't been accumulated. Mary Jane's dreamy and creative functions seem to highlite such spots for me, when it's working right. Sometimes in poker you really just need to slow down and THINK. . . ie, what's the right bet size? What does he think I have and how will he react? And so forth. Playing 12 tables cracked out on caffeine is a totally different experience. . . one focused on bashing out the most correct play on average as often as I am able. . . playing stoned is a totally different, really enjoyable experience compared to that.

Sometimes. Lately. . . I just haven't wanted to play. And it's not like I have another way to make money at the moment. . . (though I've started work on making my own web based browser game, a coffee product I want to produce, and have half a dozen writing and web projects gathering dust), I just don't want to play. Sometimes poker just doesn't feel right and I don't know if I'm just chronically (heheh) lazy or if I just really need to diversify myself a bit.

Now, there is one ugly truth I'm avoiding looking at. . . the allegations that marijuana use saps motivation. That could definitely be true in my case for a very simple reason- I don't play serious sessions unless I really feel like playing, and I often wake up just cloudy headed enough to want to spend my time playing video games. . . and smoking more pot all day. Which, incidentally, is a lot of fun! It's like I'm 9 years old and can have Saturday any time I want, and this time I've got way better video games and drugs to help me enjoy them. It's pretty awesome.

Incidentally, alcohol and poker is a horrible combination, and as I say that as one of the worlds biggest fans of both. I've just done plenty of the two together to know that they don't really belong. Alcohol and Marijuana for that matter have a similiar issue- The Blowup Factor. Booze has a much higher Blowup Factor in my opinion than MJ, but they both have the potential to produce drastically bad plays.

Or is that excuse making? Lord knows I can make horribly redonkulous plays completely sober.