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State of the Union[ return to main articles page ]

By: Wachovia
Published on Sep 8th, 2005
When the President gives his State of the Union address, He gives us an assessment of where we are and where he wants to lead us. In the same way we need to, periodically, take a serious overall look at our game and where we want to head. It has been said that a man without goals is like, is like a ship without sails. So with that in mind, I wanted to share the state of my “union”: <READMORE>

1)
How am I doing in my #1 goal?- My #1 goal is ROI(return on investment). I play the game to make money. At the start of the year I come up with an acceptable goal based on the time that I think I will spend playing poker. I don’t play to have fun. That is a by product, but not a goal. I don’t play to socialize. That is a fantastic benefit, but again, not a goal. I have won 29 mtt’s so far this year. I am very proud of that, but pride doesn’t pay my sons college tutition…ROI does. I’m in 6 figures of ROI for the year. Now that is no guarantee of future results, but it tells me that I’m meeting my #1 goal for the year.

2)
I want to be a better player this year- This one is pretty subjective, but I had evaluated my game at the end of last year and came up with a list of holes. So I wanted to concentrate on becoming better in those areas. One of them was early chip accumulation. One of the problems I ran into last year was not having enough chips after the first break when the blinds started to become more significant. I wanted to make sure that I became more aggressive with my betting in the first hour, so that the pots that I won were for more chips. I also wanted to be freer in my opening hand requirements. I won’t usually play 98c for 4x the blind in the 4th hour. I will play it for 4x the blind in the first hour. Then if I hit the flop you better be ready to give up a ton of chips or fold. The other hole I wanted to plug was predictability. I have now adopted Phil Ivey’s style of play. There are times when I will be very, very tight. There are other times when I’m as loose as a pornstar. The goal is to make you unsure of what I have in my hand. When people have asked him what his style is, his response is it depends on the table. I am trying to emulate that. The Pstars 500k was a real good example of that. There were times when I was very tight and times when I played like a maniac. In the end, I finished 65th out of 3300+ entries. There was no way you could put me on a hand because you saw me win with J10 off, K10c, 78h and then KK. Each time I was either raising or calling big bets. Those hands were bases on the people who raised and their position.

3)
Keep your emotions in check- I relate very well with Aawwnutz. We’ve talked about how hard it is to just blow things off. I wrote in a previous blog about ways that I’ve used to try and keep my emotions under wraps and I must say that the results have been mixed lol I will say that one of my pet peeves is guys who talk about top players not complaining. That top players just suck it up, say “good game” and go about there business…what a load of frickin crap!! Look at the top 20 guys in the rankings. I have witnessed 14 of them yell, scream, whine, complain or whatever adjective you want to use after a bad beat. Does that make them less of a player? Give me a break! All that’s saying is it matters to them what happens. How about you perfect “decorum angels” give it a rest. When you play poker for money it can get the best of anyone.

4)
When things go bad, stick to your honey holes- I don’t know why, but Prima’s 20k and Paradise’s20k have been an elixir whenever things are going bad for me. I’ve won those 2 tourneys 12 times this year and they always seems to come at the best time. When I’m on a bad run, I’ll concentrate my efforts on those tourneys. There have been some days where they’re the only tourneys I will play. I don’t want to get into bad habits and get mentally fried, so the best thing for me to do when things are going bad is to play less and hit Prima and Dise.

5)
Try to have a positive affect on the game. I really do take my ranking at pocketfives as a responsibility. I want to try to help players and be a positive influence. That’s hard sometimes when people twist what you say or out an out misrepresent what you say. “It didn’t happen that way” or “I never said that” have gone through my mind many times. However, I have come to the conclusion that it comes with the territory and I have to be a little more careful about what I say and when I say it. You may not like me or hardly ever agree with what I have to say, but hopefully you respect my right to say it.

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