Poker Battlefield

Playing in the deepstack tournament has become a battlefield for me. I enjoy the competition and I have to make sure I am mentally ready to sit the four to six hours it will take to play in this game. I sat down at the table and across from me was the person who said something about me and my play when I first played the deepstack months ago. Now, I don’t hold grudges but seeing him again brought back the memory and I feel I have grown as a poker player since then. I also knew I would have to be at my best against him. We did get involved in a couple of hands together. One of them I called down and gave him a lot of chips with Ace high just to see what he was playing. He didn’t have to turn over a lot of his cards and I wanted to see what he was doing. It cost me but I still achieved what I wanted to see. Again like last time he says something about my play and we have some words going between us. I am not going to back down from this bully at the table. The next one I had J9, and was in the blinds, and he raises me. I then call and we see the flop of 10J10. I put in a bet and he raises and I put in all of my chips. He calls and turns over the A10. Ok, I guess I lose this battle again. The turn brings the J and the river is an A. My full house beats his. I feel better getting some of my chips back and especially coming from him. After that we didn’t play against each other again. He stayed out of my pots and I stayed away from him. When our table broke I was moved to the main table and he was on the other table. I felt a little burst of energy to keep working and moving on in the tournament. I made it to 13th place and felt good about my play. One more good hand and it would have gotten me to the final table but on this night it wasn’t to be. I have a book about the Art of War on poker and maybe I need to bring it down off of the shelf and start reading it. It could help in the mental aspects of the game. One of the things I have not done in poker is wear sunglasses. I am not sure how I feel about it since it does make everything darker but I can see the advantage of watching players and them not knowing what you are looking at. I would like to find some and try them out in a tournament to see how I would do. I know I don’t like to listen to music while playing since it distracts me from listening to the conversations around me. I now have two days off and will try to get some stuff done around the house before I head off to work out at the club and then off I go to play some more poker. Have a fun day…..