San Diego Hangout + Worst Day Recovery

Posted by icemonkey9 on Dec 12, 2009 in zen | 3 comments

I recently spent a day with the guys in La Jolla at their house which was an absolute blast.  On hand were BW, Zach, Derek, FantasticCow, ChiacgoJoey and Dashornman and the energy level went up by about 8 notches once Joey showed up.  That kid has the perpetual energy of a six year old after eating a bag of Halloween candy.  After a spirited ping pong tournament (Icemonkey 3, ChiacgoJoey 0) we headed over to Seau's Restaurant.

Eating with 6 poker players is always an entertaining activity.  Derek, who is from Milwaukee, had never tried Sushi so Cow ordered him some California Rolls, which are not raw fish but avocado and crab wrapped in rice (good stuff).  He liked the rolls but then I introduced him to Wasabe which is a highly spicy green substance meant to be used in pea-sized portions. Well, it wasn't too soon that a prop bet came in from Cow for $10 for Derek to eat the whole thing at once.  Derek said $100 and after some negotiating, the bet was settled at $75. All I can say is Derek downed the thing and then looked like he was going to die.  He drank his entire Coke and then pushed me aside to grab my water and drank that and proclaimed that bet to not even be close  to worth the $75 he won.

At the end of the dinner we had a $190 bill and it was time to play everyone's favorite game show, Credit Card Roulette (CCR).  It came down to me, Joey and Zach.  Everyone was screaming and rooting, and fortunately for me my card was the next one picked.  It was down to Joey (who had just won a $32,000 prop bet) and Zach and gg but thanks for the dinner Zach!

After dinner the plan was to do a "LOCKDOWN!" but after 2 hours of watching beer pong with the guys there really wasn't much enthusiasm for the whole deal. When I did start playing ... well ... let's just say I had my worst day ever.  We're talking EVER.  It may not be in comparison with some other guys and their worst days, but experiencing this was one of THE most disheartening things I've ever felt.  Hands that made this happen include:

• QQ vs KK (against a LAG fish)
• Trip Aces + Nut Flush draw losing to boat
• 2nd nut flush vs nut flush
• Two lost big flips
• KK vs AA (BB vs SB)

The sheer magnitude of what losing 5.5 buyins means to me is definitely stronger than what it does to anyone (well, 99%) of people I know that play poker at these stakes.  I can count with my nutstack how many other people I know that play online poker that also have a Bachelor's Degree, which allowed them to get a job to make a decent wage to understand how hard you have to work for decent money to come in.  If you're a 22 year old living with your mom and dad and have graduated high school without holding a career job or college program down, I just can't imagine in most circumstances the same appreciation of an income for someone that works for a living.  Thus, I really have to not think about the money I play for as money and more as a "computer game score" that doesn't have the same meaning.

Anyways, a few friends were very kind and I think after sleeping on it I was able to shake it off fine.  The coaching with ChuckTs has been going real well.  The first two sessions, to be completely honest, I wasn't sure if it was going well or if I really was learning anything.  But then after our third session which was a sweat, things really clicked after watching the session over again (I recorded it with Camtasia).  I really felt myself slow down, pay attention and think about the things ChuckTs has begged me to work on.  I just felt something click and I think that's a real good thing.  It'll take a while to actually assess if that happens but there's no reason not to enjoy a positive feeling (while not allowing to read into it too much).

So that's about it for now.  I'll be playing, grinding, studying and watching.  Hope your poker month is going well readers!