Pokerless
Monday, September 18, 2006
This weekend, I had the pleasure of attending my grandparents' 60th Anniversary. Like most Jewish NY grandparents, mine live in the Retirement Community known as Florida. As a result, wifey Kim and I met at the train station on Friday after work to catch a train to the airport.
We flew Jet Blue, an airline that I know very well. There are a lot of great things about ole Blue. The TV in each seat with Direct TV is number 1. Nothing makes a flight a little easier than watching the Jets almost beat New England (on our Sunday return flight). Blue also doesn't cancel flights, but that cuts both ways. It was rainy in NY, so by the time the 9:50 plane took off on Friday, it was 1 am.
I'm not a particular fan of Florida. If it weren't for my family there and Disney World (ah, nostalgia), I'd probably never return. As long as a restaurant has an early bird special under $10, it will stay open, regardless of their pitiful excuse for an entree. It's really the Second Chance State, a place where people move after they failed elsewhere (excluding, of course, my family and all the elderly).
Whatever the case, it was nice to get out of NY, even if only for a few days of family gatherings and manuevering.
As a result of the trip, I didn't play a scratch of poker for the entire weekend. In fact, I skipped poker on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which may seem like a minor detail, but is actually my longest stint without poker for some time. Its funny, though. I didn't miss it at all.
It wasn't so much the lack of bad beats, but rather, outside of my usual routine, things like poker don't factor in much. I am a creature of habit, and the nightly grind has become just that: habit. I still love the game, but I'm glad to have a few days off to gain some perspective.
Mind you, you can take the poker away from the boy, but you can't take the boy away from the poker. As per usual, I did sometimes find myself gravitating to poker in my head here and there. When I called my grandmother on Friday before the flight, we caught up a bit. She asked me, "And how is the poker?" This is where I get it from, of course. She was the one who suggested my family go to AC for Thanksgiving when I was a kid, after my mother had a falling out with her sisters. This was also the woman who taught me the finer points of blackjack and other card games, and fed my addiction for all things gaming when I was just a wee boy. She is also one of the few people in my family (only person, perhaps?) who affirmatively asks me about poker. The rest ask how things are going, and I unintentionally catch myself giving them an update of my recent poker pursuits.
Saturday, at a family gathering, I chatted lightly with my cousin Zach. I saw a photo of him playing chess and challenged him to a game. I don't know how the conversation turned to poker (although I'm sure its my fault), but we also discussed the game lightly. Zach is a newer player and has yet to deposit online. I hadn't seen Zach in some time, so I was going to suggest he get Instant Bankroll from Party or Absolute, until I remembered to ask him his age first. 17. I told him to email me on his 18th birthday and I'd hook him up. The kid is smart and competitive, so I'm sure he'll do just find, but I can't help but feel like the drug pusher offering the first hit for free... Of course, you can't win money smoking crack.
Aside from that conversation, the rest of my poker conversations happened inside of my head. When I got back to NY last night, I looked at my laptop with disdain. "Poker Temptress, you shall wait!" I had decided to abstain for at least one night longer. Tonight, I may just return, but part of me is challenging myself to hold off. One day at a time, I suppose.
No matter what, though, I do expect to be playing poker on Wednesday night. I received another invite from Dawn of I Had Outs, one of the lesser pimped but more interesting blogs out there. The girls from I Had Outs have a flare for humor (with a sprinkling of mind-boggling in-jokes), but balance it all with a great variety of commentary about poker.
It will be nice playing live again. I'm getting butterflies just thinking about it. It's such a different beast than online, and really just seems more...pure. Of course, that's a rather foolish statement to make. It's like saying that tennis is more pure than ping pong, but the truth is that both are pure forms of entertainment and gaming. They just have different parameters to work with. Whatever the case, I'm coming to the realization that my amazing poker career may have to involve more live games. Online is great fun, but I cannot escape the distractions, both inside of my head and out. This isn't in reaction to any particular game or hand. It's just a blatant reality for me. Online poker is a lot harder than it looks. The hardest part of all is consistency. Live poker might not be any easier, but its at least something to think about.
That's all for now. Keep on keeping on. Until then, make mine poker!
posted by Jordan @ 2:40 PM,
2 Comments:
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At 5:46 PM,
said...
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Just wanted to confirm DADI wasn't blogger exclusive, was gonna share the password with some people from undergrad but wanted to confirm with you first
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At 9:15 PM,
Jordan said...
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Ebs, please do. DADI was specifically created to allow anyone to enter. I expected bloggers and readers, but the more the merrier.
