Rush

Have played a bit of Rush on FT.  If I had more time, I would probably pass, at least while I could still find some decent tables.  Which is funny, because I think that one of the things I do relatively poorly is adjust...both to player types overall and to table history.  I also don't find that I take great notes.  I think those things go together.  So, theoretically, Rush should be right up my alley.  But I want to get better at those weaknesses in my game, and playing Rush makes it harder to do (although I am trying to get some basic notes down on players).

I'll probably continue playing some, though, because my time is severely limited.  Sometimes I'll only have 30-45 minutes to play.  There's not much point to even boot up some conventional tables and search for a good few seats.  But with Rush, I can get in some hands.  I've mostly been playing 100 NL, and it seems pretty easy, but I'm not playing regular 100 NL to draw any conclusions.  I started off pretty brutally in terms of BBs at 50 and 100 (until I realized you could join the same game more than once).  Dollar-wise was no big deal.  Then things swung up, and I think that I ran and played better.  I coolered and got coolered, but I found that whoever was ahead when the money went in tended to stay ahead....super nice for me for a change.

In my regular session on Friday night, though, it was LOL Fridays.  I had one fun stretch within 5 minutes where 3 hands didn't hold...once on the flop and twice on the turn.  Their draws were decent, so no big deal I guess.  But in that same time, I couldn't pull ahead with massive draws...one I had an open-ended straight flush draw and 2 overs to a middle PP that I think he turned into a bluff, but he was pretty bad, so maybe he just way overplayed.  It's kind of like being in a game with a bad ref...fine if your calls are going to suck, but could you at least make them the same way against both guys?  Meh.

I think that I'm still playing OK, but have not shipped off enough hands the last couple weeks for review from folks.  I've just been extra busy shepherding a few things at work.  That dovetails to a question from the comments recently (thanks, by the way, always nice to see a comment once in a while :) ).  The question was about how the balance between wife/family and poker has evolved.  Well, thanks to the last few month's poor results, the money certainly hasn't been more meaningful!  But even as it got to be more meaningful, that is when the results were good, nothing much has changed.  It's still not enough for her to frown upon the time away from her and the family that poker could take.  I still play the odd session at "prime" time, but for the most part, it's when no one's around/awake but me.  I think if I pushed it, I could put more time into it at home, but it would be at the expense of something I value even more, so I don't.

Happy New Year :)

Little late on this, obviously.  Had a slow couple weeks over the holidays, but came back to work facing a sh*tstorm of short term deadlines. Not sure how much you know (and anyway you care less) about software development, but there are some very different phases you go through in the life of building particular features.  The beginning part is all about figuring out what it's supposed to do and how it should look.  Then you get into a bunch of other crap.  Well, I'm at the beginning of a couple big projects, and being the lead, not only do I have to come up with and then communicate my own thoughts, but I also have to bring in a bunch of other people.  And a bunch of other leads are doing the same thing with their projects, so sometimes it's a real PITA to get everyone's feedback early.  But I've learned the hard way that if you don't get it early, you're going to get it later, and cause yourself a bunch more headaches.

So, I'm in the midst of some crazy meeting-after-meeting-after-meeting crap.  Actually, it's my favorite part of the whole software development process, so it's pretty interesting.  But it never seems to go smooth enough.  Not only that, but I got asked to head up a task force to make sure that a lot of different teams are doing things the right way in terms of all this early definition.  So, not only am I doing my own stuff, I'm guiding other teams in theirs.  It's a good thing being recognized/asked to lead all this, but it does make for more work.

Oh, yeah, kids' basketball seasons kicked off last Saturday.  Coaching both of their teams, so write off a lot of evenings.  Well, not write off, because again I enjoy it, and my kids both still think it's cool I'm their coach.  But between work and basketball, not much time for anything else.

That said, in the spirit of taking stock of oneself at the beginning of the year, I'm making some resolutions both directly and indirectly related to poker.  Indirectly:

• Get more sleep.  Yeah, this will even further reduce my hand volume...it's already next to nothing.  But, I'd been waking up too tired, and I think it was affecting my whole life, not just poker.  Especially struggling with some run-bad, I need as much help as I can get on the mental/emotional front.
• Get myself in shape.  Over the last couple years especially, I've completely failed with good food discipline.  Too many sweets and too much of everything in general.  Exercise has been better than that, but not consistent enough, and probably not intense enough.  I'm making a concerted effort to improve both areas.  Again, I think those things will help with a more stable and better attitude at the tables.

Honestly, because they affect so much more than just poker, those are the things I'm really trying to get right.  However, as far as poker habits go, I plan to add the following:

• More training video review.  I really slacked off here the last couple months.  From Oct - Dec, I think I watched 2 or 3 vids intensely (notes, pause before action/explanation, etc.), and another couple casually.  I don't think I'm at the point where I need to go overboard, but if nothing else, it's a different way to focus your thinking.

I will still review most sessions (unrealistic to say I'll do all, even though I'd like to do that), and dig out some trouble hands for review.  I still plan to continue periodic coaching lessons, even though I'm pretty light on hand volume.  And really excited about recently connecting with Ian and reconnecting with Mark for some regular review.  Both have been awesome about accommodating my wacky schedule, so thanks very much to both of you for that.