Poker Leage Recap - Home in time to clear the driveway

I usually keep the personal stuff to one of my other blogs, but I think it will help to explain why I've been a bit distracted and tilty lately. You see, I quit my job almost 2 weeks ago.

I'm not an idiot, I did so after getting a new job. This has been one of the hardest decisions I've ever made. This was harder than laying down AA. This was brutally hard.

I've been with my former employer 5 months shy of 10 years. This company has been like my extended family. I started there as a intern while finishing my BS degree and have moved my way to the top programmer in the company. The part I loved about the job is the company was very small. If there are any other programmers out there, you'll know what I mean, but I got to wear a lot of different hats. The owner of the company had an office next to mine for years. We were more than co-worker, but we were friends. Many of my co-workers also became like family to me. I felt like I'm letting them down by leaving.

This was a team decision with my wife and I. I got a fantastic offer from a very large employer in our area. They made a fantastic offer, but I'm not leaving the job for the money. I'm leaving because I've reached a point in my life when I value security more than money. When you work in a small company you find yourself making lots of risky decisions. I'm ready for a break from the risk. The risks seemed smaller when the job market for software programmer was full of openings. Today, the number of jobs is small and the people around to fill those spots are numerous. Columbo, I know your fears. There have been periods in the last year, that no jobs were posted in the area for anything remotely resembling what I do.

With that being said, I returned to poker league tonight sort of ready to play poker.

I got a good night of sleep last night, but I still woke up tired. I think all of this has left me drained to empty. To make things fun, I decided to play tonight loose. Play to my strengths which is reading people.

This worked great for the first half of the night. I cleaned up pots and even got someone to double me up. It got a little hairy at first. Being loose, I was splashing lots of pots with chips, only to come up short and fold to someone actually getting something. But in the end, the game was mine. We went to break and I had 5900 in chips. Almost 3 times the starting stack. in just 3 blind levels. I really felt like I could tell what people had.

After break, the wheels feel off. While in the first part of the night, I was getting fun hands to be loose with. In the next period, I wasn't getting anything even fun to play. I don't know how loose I'd need to be to play J3o out of position with a raise in front of me. The worst part of this, as I kept folding this garbage, I was also completely running out of G.A.S. (def. #6).

I find that it takes a lot of energy and desire to play this style of poker. The best part, I knew the cards the guy had that took me out (AK). I also knew that he'd call every raise. Unfortunately, my initial raise from the button (A3) basically committed me to the pot. Oh well. I still had fun. I really need to get to a casino or a home game and play for money. Right now, points just ain't do it for me.