Amusement Park

Yesterday started off pretty good...we got 3 free tickets to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom thanks to the kids' school, plus I played some live poker Friday, did well, and so had plenty of cash for my ticket and whatever we wanted to do at the park.  The one ride my son really wanted to do was a roller coaster called Kong, and he evidently is exactly 52 inches tall...dead even with the ruler.  So, we were all thrilled he could go (whole family likes roller coasters, but none more than my son, and obviously this was the first time he could ride this one).

From there, the day got worse.  As we were walking to the next coaster, Jennifer stopped in her tracks and said, "Crap! I don't have my phone!"  Up until 2 weeks ago, for the past 4 years or so, she'd used the same crappy free flip phone, and never had any issues.  But she finally caved in to iPhone envy after watching me use mine all the time, so I bought her one. 

Somewhere on one of the loops or corkscrews of Kong, I guess her new phone slipped out of her pocket and launched itself into the air.  To make a long story short, we stuck around for 90 minutes after the park closed until they brought the phone back to us at the front gate.  It looked unscathed, but the display shattered inside.  So much for a cheapish day at the park; best we can tell, to fix it via Apple will be at least $250.

Speaking of expensive days at the park, Jennifer and I were marveling at how many people who just looked like money might be tight for them (obviously, knowing nothing about them, just the way things looked) spent a crapload of cash at the park.  I mean, even when times are tough, you need to have some fun once in a while, but it seems to me that an amusement park can be one of the most expensive ways to have a fun day with the family.

Falling behind again

Several months ago, a bunch of stuff required my attention at the same time, both in and out of work.  I finally broke down and started using a to-do list again, and even started listening to the Getting Things Done audiobook (finishing it is still on my to-do list, lol).  One of the premises behind organizing your tasks effectively, beyond completing them in the best order for you, is that you can actually stop thinking about them.  I was a bit skeptical, but I did notice that I didn't dwell on them as much when I finally got them into an organized system that I was checking daily.  And I did get myself into better shape in terms of things looming over me.

I would say I'm still in great shape for a bunch of stuff, but on the poker front, I really have gotten lazy about using my time effectively.  I'm not sure how related it is, but I'm also not thinking about the game very well at the moment.  Away from the tables, I'm spending too much time refreshing the software forum in 2p2 to see what's up with developments dealing with the new FT client.  And, I'm over-tweaking all the graphics stuff myself.  It's bad for a couple main reasons:

1. I'm doing a crap job focusing on strategy.  I have not completed watching a video this month.  I have not read any strategy posts or made any progress in Small Stakes NLHE in the entire month.  Hell, I recorded my last lesson, which was on 7/10, and it took me over a week to get it converted so I could re-watch it, and I'm still not done with it.  (Brian, I still intend to review your latest video and see if I agree with the comments being posted, but I must get through my own recording first!)
   
2. I'm playing sessions without being as mentally prepared as I'd like.  When I'm spending my time in good poker discussions or doing quality poker learning away from the table, I feel like I come to the table with a lot more focus.  That's missing.  At least, it seems to me that I'm playing like an absolute douche.  On said lesson, in the first 40 minutes, I asked some questions and took a line that I'd be embarrassed to have a newb hear/see.  In fact, I had to stop the video just now, which is why I'm writing this.  A couple times in recent sessions, I've found myself taking actions without knowing why, and not in spots where it should happen.

The FT Update Blues

I have been completely non-productive as far as poker is concerned, for a week or so.  When Full Tilt pushed out their update, I found out just how dependent on 3rd party programs I am :P.  While it didn't take all that long to find an acceptable table mod, it did take me a bit to figure out how to apply it.  And I was playing with a pretty crappy deck for a bit, when I was playing.  By now, I actually think I have a better looking setup than before (I'll try to remember to screen shot it).

But for several days, I was back to only using the tools that the poker client provides in order to play, and I sucked at that!  I thought it would be inconvenient to play without my AHK scripts, but it was more than that.  Even playing 3-4 tables, I was timing out all over the place for a bit.  When I stopped timing out, I was still paying so much attention to the time bank that I missed some pretty big details about the hands, and also kind of went on auto-pilot.  I had a lesson with Jared last Friday that was pretty laughable in terms of what I was missing.

Add to that, I had not been able to pull myself away from some of the trainwreck threads in the Zoo, plus refreshing every 30 minutes in the software forum to read about the latest updates.  So, I didn't play at all until yesterday, and even that was just on 2 tables of 50NL to test out the first betas of Poker Shortcuts and SpadeEye-post update.  Poker Shortcuts worked some, but it was doing all kinds of crazy stuff with calculating bets and what-not.   The good news is that I made over 2 BI in like 150 hands :).  Way to run hot when playing lower.

Tonight, I will disable some of the functions in Poker Shortcuts, but it still has the ability to click on the time bank and let me fold with the keyboard, both of which will put me back in my comfort zone.  Seat selection may be a bit of a different story.  SpadeEye went a lot slower.  It also reported finding a lot less players than I'm used to.  Finally, table scoring doesn't work yet.  I'd devised a pretty intricate table scoring system that I think worked better than just looking at average VPIP or # of buddies, or whatever.  Still, it's better than what I had right after the update, and I'm looking forward to getting back into playing.

I think I'll also re-watch my last lesson and Josh's reviews before playing a ton more.  Hopefully between finding some sort of software equilibrium and doing some more in-depth thinking, I'll quickly get back to where I was mentally just before the update.