CARDRUNNERS

It seems Portland is back into it's lengthy rainy season, which is okay to me since I spend most of my time at the computer anyway. I went to my son's soccer game today, his second this weekend. They play indoors at a nice indoor field/hockey rink type setup which is fun. They won today 14-2 and yesterday 10-1. I then watched some of the Portsmouth vs. Reading match in the Premiership. It was the highest scoring soccer game in 15 years. These are exactly the types of games that American fans say they would prefer if they were to watch soccer. They say that soccer is too boring and needs more scorring, but honestly I think all these games had too much scoring. What it does is devalue the importance of any one score or scoring at all. I agree that 3-2 is more exciting than 0-0 draw but there is a limit.

I"m railing Stinger in the WCOOP main event. He is off to a fast start as the table leader, with only mig.com as a notable opponent to contend with for now. One of the big issues this year has been the great structure but terribly long and grueling tournaments. They are saying the main event could be 36 hours long. That is incredibly arduous to maintain your concentration or alertness for that long. It could be argued that is against human fairness to have to be awake and competing for that long in a game. In no other sport or competition that I know of do they require something like this. Ultra marathons might be the only exception, but I'm not very familiar with those. I suppose they might argue that not everyone is in the tournament that long, but it doesn't mitigate the challenge to those who are fortunate to go deep. I think they need to implement a schedule whereby they play 12-16 hours then take a 12 hour break and resume again for another 12-16 hours. When I was watching CR member Nutedawg at the final table of event #20, there was one player who was sitting out at the final table because he fell asleep. The pokerstars Danish manager had called the guy at his house after a while to stir him and get him playing again. Very unreasonable after 20 hours of playing, in my opinion. Then it is not a matter of skill and luck, but who has the stamina and can handle the sleep deprivation.

I was watching the first half of the FA cup 3rd round match between Liverpool and Preston North End when I heard the announcers mention that they felt PNE was "punching above their weight".  I had never heard that phrase before; certainly not used in a soccer match.  They were equating the phrase to playing above your head since PNE plays in a lower league with lesser players.  The phrasing stirred some interesting thoughts in my head about what it really means.  Do we all have an intrinsic weight class?  What does it really mean to play above our abilities?  Don't our abilities include the potential to reach higher? 

About the same time this morning, I read Gordo16's blog post about his plans for poker in 2009.  He detailed his rise in poker, his struggles, and his decision to step down and then out of poker.  While his journey isn't the first I've heard following a similar path, I just wondered how it might have been different.  Did punching above his weight lead to his present situation?

In poker, there are so many ingredients that go into being a long term winning player.  I've detailed mainy of these in my past blogs: discipline, knowledge, adaption, emotional control, game selection, bankroll management, and life balance.  The lack of any one of those areas is enough to derail long term success.  Tilt, ego, burn out, dissatisfaction, and extreme frustration are all after effects of the above stated areas being out of control.

While it's not everyone's goal to be involved with poker long term, if it is, it is important to devote sufficient attention to each area.  Someone can only 'punch above their weight' for so long before they get knocked out.  So it is beneficial to learn what your weight class is.  Self-knowledge is key.

In the end, Liverpool prevailed 2-0 and advanced to the 4th round.  The commentators felt is was a just result.  Liverpool was clearly the superior team by skill and reputation.  But as anyone who has watched the FA cup knows, having heart, desire, a few lucky bounces can have you "punching above your weight" and onto the next round.