Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

After a what seemed like the longest session of poker I have embarked upon (8pm - 1.30am), I left Acorn and Rosie at it on the tables (so to speak...) and headed for bed. It had been a good night overall, playing in 4 SNG's with them, joined at some point by The Edge and Juice, and managed to win 2, come second in one and flunked the other. Played and won 2 more this morning, so the SNG's were showing a profit and I'm really on a roll at Inter after my poor start.

Had a good time on the tables too, with my str8 beating trips to take a big pot, then went on one of those runs where, even if I bet lowest pair, I'd match my second or hit a third and take down the player with top pair. These runs are fantatsic when you are on them, and I quit at my peak before I got to cocky. Sometimes, that feeling of 'can't do wrong' breeds poor calls you wouldn't normally make, and the pot starts to dwindle, so I left before this happened.

Had an interesting chat with Rosie and Acorn last night about luck, and the part this plays in our game. We'd had a party at the house in the afternoon to celebrate Cathy's parents Ruby wedding anniversary (40 years of marriage!) and by 8pm, the crowd was dwindling and the footy came on and I was left in the front room (of the east wing) with them both. The topic of conversation turned to Poker as they asked me how things were going.

'You've been playing a while now, you must be getting good' they said

So began a thought process that took me through all aspects of my game,. Even the times I know I've made poor calls and played like an idiot, to the times when I've played a hand so well and gotten maximum calls from my opponents. Am I getting good, or is it all just luck?
Luck that you hit your hand, even more luck that someone else has also hit a big hand (but not as big as yours) or just luck that the river gave you your straight or flush to knock off a set?

For sure, lady luck plays a massive part in this game, and we've all seen both sides of her at various times. But just how much is luck the over-riding factor? Rosie made a good point when she said that, as I've been playing for 18 months, luck has nothing to do with it as this will have evened itself out over that time frame.
Sat at a the table last night and seeing flush draws hit, gutshot str8's hit, trips hitting the river - all in my favour and I was getting more than my fair share of luck. Occasionly, the 'nice hand' and 'well played' was typed in, and I was close to replying sometimes 'it was an ace high flush, my daughter could play that', but I didn't and accepted their congrats graciously. Does this run make me a better player? There were times when I'd bet the pot with nothing and everyone would fold as they'd seen my run of cards - that bit was good play on my part, taking advantage of what others fear I may have. So I guess a combination of the two are essential ingredients to the consistent poker player.
Acorn summed it up with his final comment along the lines of 'buy something for the family with your poker winnings and see how that makes you feel'.

Update on the Inter account after last night / this mornings SNG play - $276. Poker Room suffered a setback when my pocket 8's on a 8 9 2 flop, ran into pocket 9's - and this has knocked me back down to 590$. An hour at Titan saw this improve to 210$.

On a final note, if the football is becoming a but tiresome as we head to the the halfway mark in games, click here for a bit of footy humour:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaFm47lsL2g