Live Session #65: Listening To The Right Voice

Well, rather than take myself off to South Kensington to the Bluff@The Mint this evening, I thought I'd stick to familiar territory and play some £1/£2 at The Empire instead - and, as is often the case after I do badly at other venues, managed to sit in a comfortable game and come away from the place with a tidy profit. I really do just LOVE this place right now. It wasn't a huge amount mind you (not enough to wipe out the recent demons) but enough to give me a vital confidence boost. Also, another good point was that rather than listening to the call of Bacchus to join him for another pint of lager (I only had the one), I listened to the more gentle voice that said (after about two and half hours of play) "cash out and go home."

I began with £250 and sat down at a fresh table that was just starting up. Luckily for me, the good players were on my right while the weaker players were on my left. The money mainly came from value-betting the calling stations to my left (one of whom was the most clueless player I have ever come across in a live game) who seemed happy enough to contribute to my stack. At one point I was up to a £380 stack but after failing to hit a few draws, and after a player on a table transfer decided to plonk himself down on my immediate left with well over £800 in chips, I chose that that was probably the time to take my leave. I did consider going on to play at Bluff@The Mint but thought it best to go for the conservative option and head for home with some winnings instead.

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As I mentioned in my last post, I think that December will mainly be about putting up the shutters or, at the very least, slowing down to a crawl. Results-wise, although not catastrophic, the last three months have really not been very good. Thankfully these have been fairly small loses overall but if last year is anything to go by, dropping profits in the later months of the year does seem to be a habit of mine - maybe it has something to do with the winter season approaching or maybe the reasons go to an even deeper psychological level. I'm not sure.

Whatever the reason for these poor results, it is certainly one step backwards on the financial front. However, as I've gestured towards in other posts quite a few times, I do feel that I have recently taken my game into the next level in so many different ways and I feel I've actually taken two or three steps forward in the developmental department; meaning that I'm very hopeful about next year. Poker really does work in mysterious ways.

Like last year then, when I started the blog and set out my stall for this year's journey, December will be about looking forward and planning for 2012. I'll probably not play so much poker next month but will mainly be reading up, studying and reflecting on the many things I've learned in 2011 so that I have a greater opportunity to achieve better things in the poker world in 2012. This may not be visibly recognizable in the form of the winning of high-profile MTTs - and I really can't see myself being much of a force on the online front - but it would definitely be nice to be a more feared and respected regular on the cash game circuit around London. (Well, maybe just at The Empire.)