Next week I am going to actually play live poker for the first time since the WSOP Main Event in 2008. And I can’t think of a better place to start playing live again than on the BIG GAME in London, England next week. Many have heard the buzz that Isildur will be emerging from behind the curtains to make his first public appearance and I am very excited to get a chance to play with him and all of the other outstanding professionals that will be appearing on the 48 hour high stakes cash game show. I am not sure when the show will actually air, but I am inclined to believe that when it does, it will probably have about the highest ratings imaginable for a poker TV show. Heck, I am just as curious as anyone else to find out more about the young (supposedly) phenom. I am hoping he truly does reveal himself and I don’t wind up sitting next to (some have speculated Isildur will wear a Kermit the frog mask to continue to conceal his identity) Kermit the Frog soul owning me for all my chips!
I am not really going there with any expectations one way or the other on how I will do. Poker is one of the only sport like events where you can play your best and get destroyed, so I tend to never really play poker with any expectations other than to simply play my best each and every hand. It has been quite humbling to have such poor results over the past 6-7 weeks. For the first time in my career I have hit a bad run that I simply can’t shake off. I have stayed the course and played my best, trying to hang in there with every bad beat, and I still have scratched out a not insignificant profit over the past 6-7 weeks, but relative to my past performance, I have never struggled so mightily in my nearly 8 million hand career. For the first time I have been actually looking forward to things like FPP bonuses. Usually they are just icing on the cake, but lately they have been a way too high percentage of my poker earnings, which is something I am intent to try and figure out if there is anything I can be doing differently to change.
Often times bad runs can lead to even greater performances in the future. Usually I am pretty optimistic that will be the case, but I actually feel like I am playing half decently. It seems like the main problem is that I just am really not getting very many great situations. When I flop a set it I am watching the board runner a flush draw and wind up losing a big pot. Or I am just too frequently the guy with QQ against KK or KK against AA. I have too often been the guy with middle set against top set. Stuff like that. We’ve all had it happen to us a million times and I am not immune to it of course, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t bothering me. No matter who you are, it is no fun to run poorly. Despite all that, I would be foolish not to spend some time extensively analyzing my game and seeing what I can find. If I can find a way to play better against the opposition and have that translate into an extra .5bb/100, then that can mean an extra several hundred thousand dollars a year in income given the massive volume of poker I play. In fact, even though I am running poorly, it wouldn’t be nearly as bad if I was playing better.
Regardless of all that stuff, playing on the big game is going to be a special treat. First off, I have never been to Europe so that alone will make it a lot of fun. It will be great to experience that culture and learn more about what it is all about.
Playing high stakes poker is also something I don’t do much of. I play the high stakes games on Poker Stars nearly every day, but the bulk of it is 5/10 and 10/20. The BIG GAME starts at 25/50 pounds and may end up higher. So that will be pretty fun. I am really not worried that it is a much bigger game than I am used to. The bottom line is that I am plenty rolled for that game and I always just make the play I think is best, the money be damned. But either way, I’d be lying if I didn’t say that playing some of those large pots will get the adrenaline going much more than playing a pot at 10/20 online.
The concept of ‘situations’ really strikes a cord with me. This is my conclusion as well. Sometimes you only get AA UTG and everyone insta folds around when you open. Other times, you keep getting AA in the BB facing BTN raise, or on the BTN against CO raise, and both villains have great 2nd best hands. This usually makes or breaks my days as well.
Good luck no the Big Game. I hope you are lucky enough to be on the same episode as Isildur.