(10) I'M A GROOGE

I wish I was into New Year as much as the picture suggests, but I'm not. It just seems like a load of bollocks to me. If you don't possess that sudden urge to go out and celebrate the changing of a digit on the calendar you are accused of being a mardy mustard, yet when people get to their destination, they complain about the crowded bars, lack of transport, price of admission, inability to reach the bar, etc, etc. It's just boring, overpriced nonsense. Why do we need an excuse to go out on the piss with our mates, and why would we pick the day when every other mug in the country is doing it?

Woohoo, let's celebrate it being 2008, what a monumental occasion. In fact, let me pay for that privilege of experiencing the turn of the year in all its wonderful glory. Feck that, can I celebrate it next week when it's free? I guess I'm just the Grinch and Scrooge's lovechild - a Grooge.

Grooging aside, it would appear bad karma has finally caught up with me after my unrelenting ambush of the lemmings species yesterday as I am now suffering from the most potent confliction since the Plague, Man Flu, so called because women suffererers are way too fragile and simply don't survive.

I remember catching flu around the time of the 2006 Grosvenor Grand Prix. At the time, it was my biggest tournament to date, so I was furious that of all the times, this was when the flu decided to attack. As expected, it affected my game. I could play, but not to my usual level of alertness. My head just wasn't in the game, my reads were off and I made numerous incorrect decisions.

I'm not bed-ridden just yet, but the combination of sore throat, chesty cough and bunged up nose had a similer hampering effect yesterday as it did in Walsall. After just a couple of hours into my session, I could feel myself gradually losing my concentration. One of my opponents was ultra slow, so I was multi-tabling two (which is rare for me), but my brain couldn't keep up. I was also making too many errors and knew that if I was on the wrong end of a few bad beats, I could potentially end up calling off a load of chips. Thankfully, I recognised these signs and stopped.

If there is one thing that I've learned since playing heads-up poker, it's that I truly have to be in good nick to maximise my profits and minimise the chances of having a session as badly as the one I experienced on Day 6. In heads-up, one lapse in concentration can really cause a domino effect of errors as you just don't have as much time to recover your composure, and before you know it, you've dumped hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars.

I think in future, I may keep withdrawing money from my blonde poker account so as not to get into the mindset of "it's okay to play loose, I have loads of money to spare" when I do hit a bad run or slip into a dangerous frame of mind. If there's less money in my account, then I feel that it might make me stop and think a bit more before calling off chips, especially considering ipoker won't allow me to deposit any more money until I send them copies of all my ID details, which I don't particularly want to do.

I won a chunky pot today with K-Q versus A-J on an A-J-T Flop, but the more intriguing hand was the one I lost for a total of $380.46. 5c-2h-9s Flop, I bet $8 with 9c-8s, he check-raised to $16 and I called. He bet $20 on the 6d Turn, I made it $40, he called and then pushed all-in on the 9h River for $130. I called and he had 9d-6s. At first, I dug up an old cliche, "that's poker", but afterwards, I really thought I could have got away. Looking at the board, what could he possibly be pushing all-in with? No flush draws, no real obvious straight draw. Any hand except trips or a full house will check, and considering how poor my kicker is, I think it has to be a fold.

Only 64 bucks up today, but that's okay, I'm being extra paranoid about when I play, which is better than playing when I know I shouldn't. It's weird, people will take a fleeting glance at my hourly rate and say to me, "Wow, that's not bad pay, why don't you just play all day?" Unfortunately, it doesn't quite work like that, as this is one of the few occupations where you can go home with less money than you started with, so you have to be selective when you play, and if that means only playing when you feel good, then so be it.

biggest pot won: $928.46
biggest pot lost: $380.86
time at the table: 2hr 3min

profit = $64.19
blonde poker account = $3,388.94
$1,611.04 to go before the tax man goes away

Days played = 10
total time played = 34 hrs 31 mins
current $ per hour = $60.52
current $ per day = $208.89