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Doing Time
Thursday, August 10, 2006

I played the Mookie last nice and utterly embarassed myself. I can't help but think of SirFWALGman as a loose madman at the table. It's far from the truth. I had a nice stack when I eventually called his all-in with top pair shitty kicker. As soon as I lost, I closed the window, transfered the $11 last longer bet to SteelerJosh and shut off my computer. At least I can hide from my shame.

But, man, I love that Mookie.

Before I get to my post-in-full, for any of you players/bloggers who are in the market for a headphone/microphone headset, there is one on sale now at Woot.com for $20, $5 shipping. For the uninitiated, Woot is a great site that offers one product for sale each day, usually at a deep discount. Even though I am not looking for anything in particular, I check it daily just to see whats for sale. It's usually tech related, except for the occassional golf club or bag-o-crap. Why would you need this? You don't. But on occassions, some folks like to voice chat on the girlie chat thing during a tournament. I haven't done it in a while, but it is light-years better than typing into a chat box between hands. Instead, just play your game and chat away.

Now, its time for some random poker pontifications. I actually wrote this about a week ago, but didn't post it for some unknown reason. Enjoy:

The Circuit podcast has been a boon for me, intellectually. It has provided me with some great material that has made its way into this here blog. For the most part, I just hear something and its like a light goes off in my head. As per usual, my interests usually lie in considering some of the unconventional aspects of the game, and this post is no exception.

In a recent episode of The Circuit, one of the hosts commented on an idea from Barry Greenstein. According to the host, Greenstein stated that the optimal way to play online poker was to have sessions of about one and one-half to two hours at the longest.

There is a lot of logic behind this idea. After a while, attention does drop off. One can only look at a series of pixels for so long before the desire to get up and walk around kicks in. Or maybe it is more that desire to check your email, IMs, or what's on the television. Even without these distractions, fatigue sets in. Concentration drops off and suddenly you are no longer actively playing poker. You are on auto-pilot and playing worse than when you were actively engaged in the game.

Of course, for long form tournaments (my utterly made-up name for large field MTTs), you will need to play for more than an hour and a half. That would be the exception. Otherwise, I'm sure I would do myself well to walk away after a bit. In fact, I sort of do this now. I'm sure bloggers like Slb, GCox and Trip will attest to my usual style of playing a tournament and then "taking five" when I'm out. I need a bit of a brain reboot; some time away to make sure that I am still sharp and ready to go, as opposed to still in the zombie-poker mode and ready to continue.

What I find particularly interesting is that the opposite is true for live games. The longer I sit at a live game, the better I play. I always assumed that there was more going on. More to watch, more to learn, more to keep me plugged into the action. I'm sure that is part of the reason why I get better as time passes. Reads are more crucial, so the longer I am at the table, the longer I am able to gather those reads. I also feel the rhythm of the action a lot better as time passes when I play live (that rhythm again). Perhaps the lack of distractions (yes, even in a casino) is a factor as well. All said, I'm not sure why my game improves the longer I play live. These reasons aside, there must be something else.

Another conundrum. Play online for short sessions. Play live for long sessions. But it's all poker. Thoughts?

posted by Jordan @ 1:04 PM,

8 Comments:

At 1:40 PM, Blogger slb159 said...

Great playing with you Jordan. I played my turned boat a bit too strongly I guess and let you see that you were behind. If I smooth-called, I think I could have gotten a river bet out of you...that, or get rivered by a bigger boat like I did the other night. :)

 
At 1:50 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for playing last night.

I too have started listening to all the past Circuit podcasts. Alot of good stuff. I like that Huff makes sure to ask questions to some of the pros from the angle of a lower limit player like alot of us.

 
At 2:43 PM, Blogger Dave said...

Was hoping to get to play at your table last night High but twas not to be. Trip busted me out in 18th. I suppose a fair showing for my 1st mookie. Get em next time.

 
At 5:03 PM, Blogger Pseudo_Doctor said...

good post with some very good insight. But to throw my two cents in considering im bascially an online pro---not in the skill sense but in the fact that my income is from online poker this summer---i think that part of your saying is true. Playing short session is good in that you keep focused but i usually play 3-4 a day and alot of time my winnings come from later in the session after i had time to figure out my opponents and rarely from the first hour or so. But live poker the long you play the better you play because say for example 3 hours of live play, playing 20 hands an hour...you can play an hour online at shorthanded table playing 90 hands an hour and u've played more hands then u would live in 4 hours. So what im getting at is that playing long live u are really just getting to the point of playing 1 hour online. I hope that makes sense though i know its a bit confusing...

keep up the good posts

 
At 5:55 PM, Blogger Jordan said...

Good point, Raveen. I think I over-estimate the amount of hands played per hour in a live game.

SLB, don't worry about it. I was onto you. I was ready to check it down at that point.

Mook, the Circuit rocks, but it doesn't rock as much as the Mookie events.

Chip, its good to have you back. MMORPG or whatever they are called are the devil. Poker, on the other hand, is pure heavenly delight. On that note, if you are in the WWdn NOT tonight, maybe you will get to play against me. Its at 10:30 at Stars, password: monkey.

 
At 1:13 AM, Blogger SirFWALGMan said...

Thanks for the comment man! I enjoyed outplaying you that hand, and I am sure you will do the same to me next time.

 
At 9:37 AM, Blogger STeelerJosh said...

Let it be known that Jordan is a man of his word. He transferred in the last longer bet before I was even out of the tourney... which was tough because I donked off my stack pretty quickly after he busted out.

I think the Mookie is like playing the featured table in a big tournament. There will always be some big names and you will make some plays that you might normally not since you do not want to be bluffed out of your socks on national television. At least that is how I explained my donkified move when I flopped TPGK and shoved on a what I thought was a weak re-raise. Smelled like a bluff, but the insta all in call revealed trip 10's. Doh.

Nice playing with you J, thanks for the freeroll and great AC trip reports.

Josh

 
At 9:59 AM, Blogger Jordan said...

Thank you, Josh. GG, sir, even if you did dive-bomb as soon as I was out.

I think your assessment of blogger tournaments are right on. The fact that you 'know' the players from their sites or wherever really can change the way one plays, for better or worse.

 

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