Poker Drought

I don't talk much poker on this site since I opened up the Living the Dream blog, but I need to kill a few minutes at work so why not throw something up on the page.
Possibly the worst drought of my entire poker playing career (not really a career but don't know what to call it) is going on right now and I don't know how to stop it.  In the last four games I have played I have lost $1,100.  I have a game tomorrow night and another next Saturday that need to result in a win, not just for the sake of my pocketbook, but also for my psyche.
It is not so much that I am losing the hands I play, but that I am playing them terribly and losing the money way too quickly.  I am going to try slowing things down tomorrow night and see if playing a slow, methodical game helps my play any.  Thinking about each bet, how much is in the pot, what each betting option is, and the most likely result to come out of said options will be the main focus of the night.  Normally you might wonder why I don't normally think about all that, but in most cases I simply play the hand by routine and make bets from my gut feeling.  This strategy has been a winning one for so long, it is odd to have to change things up and have a real strategy going into the night.
Wish me luck and hopefully I will have some good news for Living the Dream.

A Little Free Time At Work

The network has been brought down at work and I do not have the capability of doing any sort of work right now, so I figured I would write out a blog post and save it for later once the Internet it back up.

A few changes have been made at work.  I am now the full-time lobby agent who greets customers when they come into our building.  It has been a tough transition as some of the duties of my work are not as easily accomplished from my new desk, but I still have my cubicle in the Mortgage Services Department and will be getting a new computer for that desk to have for when I want to work during lunch or after hours I don’t have to be in the lobby.  Outside of not seeing my friends at work as much and not having a door to separate me from the people who are walking through the hall to go to the bathroom or break room, the new work station is great.  I am getting a lot of work done, which is a blessing because my supervisors have given me four new tasks that used to be done by five different people.

Jackson had his second birthday 10 days ago.  He is an awesome kid and I am so very excited to have a boy.  Emery and I have a great relationship, but already I can tell that I am Jackson’s best friend.  I hope this stays the same throughout his life.  However, being your son’s best friend is great, but I will have to remain his father first.  Our relationship will need to be one in that I am his father first and friend second.  Things cannot get to a point where my disciplinarian role takes a back seat because I don’t want to hurt his feelings or damage our friendship.

Jack and I have the greatest of times.  Just last weekend we had a couple of hours to ourselves and we built a fort out of the couch cushions and ate junk food all day long.  It is those kinds of moments that make parenthood worth all the financial frustrations and sleep deprivation.

Emery and I had a nice daddy-daughter night the other evening.  She spent the night Monday and I decided to treat her to staying up late and taking her to my softball game at 9 p.m., which is normally when she goes to bed at our house.  The game ended up starting about five minutes late and ran over the normal time.  We didn’t leave the park until after 10:30 and she fell asleep in the car on the way home.

She is so beautiful and acts just like her mother, which I haven’t yet figured out if that is a good thing or not.  Watching her grow these last five-and-a-half years has completely altered my life and state-of-mind.  Without her I wouldn’t be the same person I am today.

Some home renovation work is being done on our house.  We are gutting an area in the backyard to make way for some seating and a playground.  The work of sawing trees down and getting the stumps out with an axe and sledgehammer has been exhausting.  I’ve got one stump left, but I am going to take a few days off to let the pain in my back subside a bit.  My father-in-law and I are going to take a sliding glass door out of Emery’s room this weekend and put in a wall with a window.  Since moving into the home I have not been a fan of the door that leads directly outside, and the reason is twofold.  One, it is a safety concern for people getting into Emery’s room at night when she is asleep.  The other is preventing her and her (boy)friends from sneaking in and out in the future.

In the world of sports, I am extremely happy to have baseball back.  The Rangers are starting the season off well, but those stinkin’ Oakland A’s continue to win.  It is obnoxious.  However, the annoyance of the A’s winning is being offset a bit by the joy I find in the Los Angeles Angels losing.  Another benefit to moving my desk at work is that our lobby now has a television and it is set up to get ESPN and the MLB Network.  Any time of day I can now get the sports news I want and when the Rangers have a day game, like tomorrow, I can turn it on and watch while I work.

I’ll be playing some poker this weekend and next when I go to Granbury and Weatherford.  Hopefully I have some good news to put on my poker blog.  The last three trips to WinStar have ended poorly and a solid win these next two weeks are sorely needed.