What a difference sleep makes!

So I’ve been focused on poker quite a lot lately; in fact, there have been a few weeks where I might have spent more time on poker than I’ve spent at work.  (Don’t tell my boss!)  On nights when I stay home, I’ve been reading and trying to learn as much as possible.  Other nights I’ve been playing, building up my bankroll trying to earn enough to fund the trip to Vegas in early June, while still retaining enough in my bankroll to play at least $8/$16 when I return.  I’m on-track.  I’m also crossing my fingers.

Monday night a couple of people from work went with me to The Caribbean.  I’ve lost a lot of respect for play at The Caribbean (my friend and I call it the Kirkland Aquarium – alluding to the fact that there are so many fish who play there).  I’ve spent just a little bit of time playing $8/$16, but the difference between that game and the $3/$6 or even $4/$8 makes it almost laughable to play at the smaller stakes.  It’s kind of become difficult to take it seriously – except I’m still averaging $20+/hr on average when I play there, so the income is healthy enough to play.  Especially since the closest $8/$16 or $10/$20 game is 30-45 minutes away.

At any rate, I and 3 coworkers went to The Caribbean on Monday night.  It started out to be a little frustrating, as a few people hung in to make better hands against some of my stronger starting hands.  I wasn’t down much – about $20 or so, but for some reason I just couldn’t get ahead.  Whenever I won a pot I seemed to lose another and I hovered right around my initial buy-in.  I started the session at about 7:00pm, and by midnight my hands started to hold up.  The table was actually perfect; my friend and I, and one of our coworkers were probably the best people at the table.  There were 5-6 loose/weak players, making it one of those tables good players look for; one where you’re almost guaranteed to get paid off if you’re just patient enough.

One player in particular was a calling station; he routinely saw the flop, even when 3 bet, or even capped preflop with such quality hands as 6-3 offsuit, or Queen-3 suited.  He would call all the way to the river with nothing more than Queen high (I saw that happen a few times).  It was like he was just giving his money away, and I was waiting, ready to take advantage of this turn of luck.

By 3:30am I was up by $401.  Not my best night, but fortunate nonetheless.  When I emptied my opponent of his last few chips, I decided it was time to go.  My friends from work stayed and I went home.  It was a very very long night, but thankfully, profitable.

Tuesday night I went with some friends to the gun range and practiced shooting (another, new hobby thanks to my Mom, the “Pistol Packing Ferret” as she’s known to The Vegas Tourist gang).  I got home at about 9:00pm, and almost immediately fell asleep and slept soundly until almost 10:00am the next morning.  I had needed sleep badly.

I went back to The Caribbean tonight, and felt really good playing with enough sleep.  It was actually really easy – I left up only $200, but left because I decided I needed to get a good night of sleep rather than make more money.  $200 in 2 hours isn’t so bad, after all.