Poker can be a brutal game sometimes. Variance is not our friend, just a mistress that rips our hearts out with a two outer on the river deep in one of your nightlies. Weeks and weeks of work can produce little more than a few hours pay at the local McDonald's and leave you questioning why exactly it is you enjoy this stupid fucking game. Then when you finally break the streak, the stars align, the doom switch is turned off, you have no idea what to do with yourself. When that score is a massive increase in your BR, it's very easy to get lazy and just not play cards at all. Well, it happened to me, and to break out of my funk I found myself in the audience of the WPT $10K TV FT at Foxwoods.
Yes for those of you that forgot during the WSOP ME, there was poker being played on this coast as well. I drove down to Mohegan on Tuesday afternoon to sign myself up for the $400NLHE event this weekend. It was my first time there since about 5 weeks after the room was reopened. I figured to get my feel for playing a new environment I would play some 1/2NL for a few hours. I left at around 9:30PM stuck $255 after taking some shots to the balls at the table (JJ<66, AA<Q9, the usual suspects). I decided I wanted to head over to Foxwoods to see if the WPT FT was still playing. By the time I arrived it was already down to HU play and the cash was already on the table. It was the first time I had seen that kind of money in person (yeah I've heard some are ones but don't ruin it for me). It was certainly a turning point.
The was an older woman their who seemed to be related to one of the players at the table. Since I wanted to get myself shamelessly on TV I started a conversation with her, sadly finding out that she was just someone who enjoyed cards and was watching the FT play out. She was a very interesting person to talk to and during play she just kept saying the same thing, "Boy is that a sweet moment." I have no idea who this woman is but she really put it in perspective for me. Playing poker is quite possibly the coolest profession out there. You have guys like Ivey and Negreanu that are celebs to the biggest Hollywood stars, poker players in general being not too far removed from professional athletes in terms of a level of fame and TV time. Watching that TV FT, seeing the set, the cameras, the cash in play, the people in the stands, it all just made me want to really push myself to get to that point.
For anyone who has serious poker aspirations, I highly recommendgoing and watching a televised event live. I know on some level it is a little lame to be the fan boy, but it's so humbling to see the stage set for the first time. Reading about it on the web, seeing it on TV, hell even playing in a prelim and making a deep run, nothing compares to seeing $910K on the table and realize what's at stake. I can truly say it helped me get myself focused up. Any gloating from winning my $50K is long past me at this point. Time to push the BR a bit and push the limits of my comfort zone. Maybe next time I won't need a seat in the stands.