Small Stakes Update #5

Filed in archive Internet Poker on March 17, 2007

The hardest thing to do is to keep a schedule for things that don't impact you either financially or physically. Of course a sane person wouldn't forget to make their mortgage payment unless the financials weren't there to do so. When "Little" Tommy drops by to collect on your bet on the minnesota twins winning the world series (sadly they did not), you wouldn't tell him that your dog ate the money.

Playing at smaller stakes then someone is used to, take time and patience. Time is of short supply when you have two very active kids, full-time job, and a couple of blogs to write for ;)

Patience is something that is a major leak in my game. Its not so much the stakes, but the financial impact of stakes being played. A win helps me obtain an extra zesty nacho plate and a tall drink at Taco Bell, while a loss might mean I can't get an extra Cap'n Coke while at the bowling alley. Poker is about money, and the stakes you play at can be considered the scoreboard, so on one hand you're not supposed to care about the size of that raise in dollars but "big bets" instead.

This a big, long way of saying I did not play a session for my small-stakes challenge to myself. I resolve to getting in at least two sessions next week barring a computer and mental meltdown. The challenge has been important to me to relearn patience at the tables, so while the actual dollars many not impact the bankroll, it does impact my play at the usual stakes.

Maybe I'll hit up one of those "dream" package qualifers and "the Grinder" would have an opinion on how to bluff a lower stakes player off his second pair after I win.