WSOP Circuit events

For those of you that don't know, there have been some pretty amazing changes made to the WSOP circuit event schedule this year.  In case you haven't read they have instantiated a points system, a national championship that will only include 100 players and have a million dollar prize pool (when else will you get that chance), televised regional championships, and (drumroll please) STANDARDIZED STRUCTURES!!  Yes, they have totally revamped things and this is leading me to play a full series when it comes to Biloxi.  Well, I'll be playing as much of a series as I can missing the first couple of days of play.  My question to you is, has anyone played in any events this year and how do they compare to the past years?  Feel free to post here any experiences or message me directly.

Next blog I'll update my charity challenge  status and fill you in on exactly the events I'll be playing. Until then.. Good luck in everything that you attempt.

My challenge, being away, and getting back

As you may have all noticed, I stepped away from this blog a bit.  It's not because I haven't been playing cards or haven't been blogging for that matter because I've been doing both. I've taken on a new challenge and been blogging about that over the past 5 months.  To sum it up, I've been working on a charity challenge.  I 'found' about $20 in my bodog account.  It must have been from a bonus or something because I thought I took everything out of there.  My goal was to build that $20 to $5K by the end of the year and donate half of that to my favorite charity.  Between to real job and other things that have been going on I haven't had a lot of time to work on the challenge but I'm up over $1K.  I have a feeling that variance is beginning to fall on the good side of things and that I'm going to be able to wrap this challenge up by years end.  If you're interested check out my other blog at http://challengetheneed.blogspot.com/ .  I'm going to begin updating this blog again on a regular basis again and hope to have something good to blog about after thsi weekend of poker.  My focus is going to be on qualifying for a handful of the WCOOP events.  In the next blog I'll talk about my results in the SCOOP and what my best tourney has been this year...it's a surprising one to me.

Until then.. Good luck in everything that you attempt.

The beatings will continue until morale improves

Although the no one can honestly tell you where this tongue in cheek one-liner comes from it has always been one of my favorites.  If I were to guess where it came from (disregarding where others think it came from) I would guess Pirates.  No, not those Somalian clowns in John boats w/ a couple of RPGs, but real Pirate of old days.  The humor in this statement comes from how backwards it is.  When we think of it in regards to poker is that really the case though.  Oddly enough, I think poker is one of the only things where this is accurate.

Here is how players generally waste their bankrolls.  First they take a couple of bad beat(ing)s.  That's variance...Aces get cracked, your flopped straight gets four-flushed.  It happens, I know it and any other player in the game knows it, from time to time the odds get turned on their head and you take a run of horrible beats.  I have (and still do) from time to time allowed this to kill my morale and put me on tilt.  When this happens you get stuck in the cycle, second guessing yourself, taking less than profitable shots, and ultimately taking more beatings which then adds to the tilt factor. 

Every poker player should learn this saying and keep it in mind when they find themselves going on tilt because the only way to stop the beatings is to stop and improve your morale.  If this means time off from the game, so be it.  If you can get out using positive affirmations, good for you.  Whatever it takes just remember, things don't change themselves...The beatings will continue until morale improves.

Next blog will likely be about what Florida and California are trying to do to get a piece of the rake and destroy the free enterprise of poker...to make some coin.  Until then.. Good luck in everything that you attempt.