It's Monday. It's also known to me as the day after Sunday. Yesterday was a awful mess of a poker day. While over the course of a poker day involving roughly 25-30 tournaments, I'm going to make mistakes. Minimizing those mistakes and being consistent are the keys to staying in position. Yesterday was simply one of those days where I kept getting knocked down. Even when it seemed the clouds were breaking, another bad beat or tough break. Countless big pairs into big pairs in situations where the average good player always goes broke. The number of bad beats and horrible hands that could have left a mark in my memory are gone now. It's Monday and time to stand back up. October is most likely going to be a negative month. I didn't really win anything this month and likely won't be playing too much until Sunday.
The takeaway from yesterday though is my overall demeanor. Even when the last bad beat took hold in the Sunday 500 on Pokerstars while we were in the money (QQ vs K2 with a shocking K on the turn), I stood up and was ready to live another day. I've had plenty of bad days since being a professional and even since playing poker. If you let them affect your confidence or your self worth, that's when it becomes a problem. Sometimes long periods of time don't go well. I've even had 4-5 months where it has felt like this. Then all of a sudden being able to manage the losses and staying focused leads to big cashes and those tournament victories when all the luck finally changes.
If you want to play poker even semi-seriously, you just have to learn to accept that losses are part of the game.
November starts the final FTOPS of the year, which is Full Tilt's big series. I've joined a 1,000 per man leaderboard competition for Nov 1-Nov 11 to really motivate me to play long and play well over those days.
On another positive note, I did get a 4 day trip to the Bahamas for the WCOOP bracelet ceremony. I'll also be working hard on satellites to the Pokerstars Carribean Adventure, which is the 10k main event down there. It's probably the 3rd biggest tournament of the year. They also have a full schedule of other tournaments that looks intriguing. The tournament takes place Jan 5-Jan 12.
