Frustrating Times

This will be a quick post but one I need to make to cleanse my mind of various thoughts. After running well throughout January and really feeling like the momentum was building to a huge February and March, I made some horrible decisions in both game selection and bankroll management that resulted in the blow-up of 50% of my bankroll over the last week. I have had a lot of things at work weighing heavily on my mind and I have let those distract me at the poker table.

I haven't had an opportunity to talk about a concept I refer to as the "hotel factor" in any of my blog posts yet but it is a concept having to deal with the environment in which you play online poker. In a nutshell, I have had a majority of my biggest online successes while in a hotel on a business trip. It is no coincidence...the ability to focus without kids, work, etc. and have a quiet environment to analyze the table is paramount to success at the felt. For reasons I will never seem to grasp, I chose to play this past week when I was a) tired, b) distracted by work, c) home alone watching the kids run around the house...you get the picture. For someone that seems so in control in both my personal and professional life, these obvious leaks in my psychological game at the tables are just mind-boggling.

I'm at a point now that I'm going to have to move down from $2/$4 NL to $1/$2 NL which is very frustrating because I seem to find more donors at $2/$4. I'm also going to have to toil at some of the lower buy-in MTT's until I can make that (inevitable) score to get me back to where I was. Arrgghhhhhhh.....It's just so damn frustrating. I was looking for some real momentum as the WSOP satellite season begins and now I will start that season in a hole.

I know I'm too good of a player to be down for long. My poker career has always been cyclical and I expect that I will turn it around in short order. I'm not playing tonight (Monday) so I will hit the tables tomorrow night after a few days off and hopefully have a clearer mind.

On a side note, my good friend Daniel (Rubba) Rose www.rosewsop.blogspot.com has really started to turn it on lately and took 3rd last night in the FT $16.5K guar. It was his 2nd cash over $2500 in the last week so I expect him to go on a major tear. Hey....If I can't be taking them down, I'm glad Rubba is doing his part. R-U-B-B-A-R-O-S-E!!!!!!!

Thanks for reading,

W2D