Movin' On Up Now

It's strange how quickly you get desensitised to money when you play online poker. The first few times I played $1/$2 cash games I remember feeling like I'd been punted down below every time I lost $200 in a hand. The standard of play wasn't much more advanced than it had been in my lower stakes games but getting used to potentially winning or losing a decent sum of cash in one hand was a mental challenge.

After a few weeks that feeling went and you just get on with the game and focus on playing well. It was the same pattern when I stepped up to $2/$4 and played my first pots of over $1,000. It was exciting - yet a little scary too - to think that one hand of poker (which might take thirty seconds to play out) could result in you winning more than some people get paid for a few week's work.

As a professional poker player however it's very counter-productive to actually think about these things and 'care' about the money. If you know that a $250 river bluff is going to be the sum total of a return train to Paris and a croissant then you'd never make it. While anyone can win good money at poker as long as they work hard, to do it for a living requires a natural mindset where losing (or winning) lots of money doesn't affect you so deeply. Experience at this definitely helps. When I first left my job at PokerPlayer magazine around a year ago to play poker I would question if I'd made the right decision constantly after losing days of $700, $1000, $450 over and over. Looking back, this constant focus on money was definitely hindering my play at the table and increasing the possibility that I would lose.

Nowadays I've turned a corner in this thinking. I don't get too upset when I have a huge losing day as long as I know it was mainly variance or coolers and not my own play. Conversely I don't get excited when I have a big winning day either. While I love my job (and the mental challenge of the game), it's there mainly for one reason - to make money. In that aspect, the day by day really is irrelevant and the only time I'll look back and be happy with how I've done is when it's the end of the year and I have achieved my goals. Hopefully I'll get there.

I was so happy to see that Jake Cody won his first WSOP bracelet in the $25,000 Heads-Up event over in Vegas. I only played with him once but he is by far and away the toughest player I ever played against - his skill and creativity at the table was incredible. There's a brilliant video here of his win:

http://www.thepokerfarm.com/online-poker-videos/jake-cody-wins-25k-wsop-heads-championship/

I'll stop talking about poker now and post some cool $5/$10 hands in a separate post later.  

My brother Matt in a staged masculine pose at Kensington Palace afternoon tea.

Great weekend last week. As a belated birthday present for my Mum she came down from Chesterfield and my brother and I took her around Kensington Palace before treating her to one of their famous afternoon teas. At the risk of sounding very gay, it was good fun.

Doing those occasional tourist days out really does make you appreciate how spectacular a city London is. While I love New York, Vegas and Barcelona as places to visit on holiday I wonder if any of them could truly compare to London if you were to live there.

I'm playing my first ever round of golf this Saturday at my mate Dave's near Cambridge. Looking forward to it but as my golf swing more resembles a rounders slug I fear for the group of golfers behind that will have to wait for me to navigate the myriad of sand traps. I think I'd probably do much better if I could just throw the ball down the course instead...