Hey everyone whats a goin on?

Things are still wet here in the dirty south west.  I know its amazing, it really is.  We have had some sort of moisture for about the last seven days in a row.  However it seems like the sun is finally coming out and going to shine today, and I'm hoping I can get a week of good weather in to get almost all of the harvesting done if not all of it.  It's really tough however there are others in the province with much worse problems than me so I can't complain too much really.  Also on the whole I think the entire province only has about 18% of harvest complete which is way behind but we are slightly ahead of that so something else I can't complain about.  I will most likely be complaining when we get going again because it is definite go time now.

As always poker is an incredible journey for me.  Since I had more time this week and with some new tricks in my bag after watching some videos on the easiest way to build your BR I started in on playing some 90 man KO SNGs on FTP.  It is definitely a struggle that is for sure with those sometimes.  Especially if you are not playing volume.  Of course a started off down, but made a triumphant charge last weekend where I was making the top 4 in everyother one that I played in.  Which was a nice change so that really bolstered my confidence and gave my FTP BR a nice little upswing.  I still haven't won one which is frusterating but I haven't ran well within the final three or HU for that matter.  Oh well I know I should be able to get it good eventually.  It is also harder to win because the turbo structure makes for certain that you won't be very deep once you reach HU so it becomes more a matter of having a crucial hand hold up.  Oh well if I could just stop my opponents from flopping sets against my overpairs I would be set for the week.

Also everyone should check out the new Kimberly Lansing interview.  Its just a good interview with a rising media star in the poker industry.  Another fairly long read that just came out is Bryce Paradis blog on Cardrunners.  It is a huge four parter, followed up with a couple of video blogs the last couple days.  However I think it is worth the time to read and reflect on as there are many good points to be taken from that blog.  However I think Bryce and I share similar thought patterns in many ways so maybe thats why I relate more to his blog than maybe some of the rest of you will.  I still recommend you check it out.  For some reason it reminds me of this video.  I really like it though it is an obvious level.  Just to watch it and listen to the words and take it as it is, there is something very pure about it.

 Also recently this song has came back into my life.  I have liked it for a long time but its another one of those songs that can allow you to get lost in the moment of your life.

I'm also getting very good at setting up office chairs as my household has just bought another one.  I recently set up my 27" LCD TV as a monitor and running it through my laptop which has been a definite advantage for any type of work I have been doing this week.  Well hopefully next update I have some more good news for you guys and maybe some more wisdom to throw down.

Miss Linda Ronstadt

I don't care what anyone says 1970's Linda Ronstadt was hot as hell, just watch Silver Threads and Golden Needles from this same TV special.  Plus she could sing.  Remember this was from the 1970's when the equipment wasn't all digital and it has been recorded from a TV.

Well its raining ever so slightly and I feel like just burning every field down I am so frustrated with the way things are going.  We haven't had a year like this since about 2006 or 2005.  And that year we were in the field until late October.  Dear sweet Jesus not again.

Other than that poker has been going the same as usual.  I was getting the crap kicked out of me in 6 max LHE.  I just could get a dominated single pair hand to hold through the river.  So whatever.  I just went back to grinding some SNGs, and small 90 mans to boost my confidence and bolster my bankroll.  I have yet to win a ninety man but have been top 5 a couple of times now and a couple cashes.  Its tough when you aren't running like Jamie Gold because of the turbo structure.  So you can't grind it out and build a stack like a non turbo MTT and those marginal situations don't always work out.  On the bright side you can usually keep yourself on the right side of things because the opponents at this level have a crazy calling range.  Like guys will call 4bet shoves with 22 OOP and what not.  Thats why these are bankroll builders if you can put in the volume.  It makes it tougher if you can not but the low limit 9 man turbos sngs are always cake too just boring to play in mass.  Speaking of which I just hit a set on the river to over set a guy who had 88 to my JJ.  Anyways he sucked out first so the resuck never feels as bad.  Hopefully everyone is running well and I'll have more time soon to think of some controversial things to put in my blog.

Hey guys,

How are things going?  Things are still pretty wet around the farm here as little showers keep passing through and even the road is staying wet all the time it seems, which means there is little to no activity going on.  Once you are ready for harvest all your activities are based around that so if you aren't combining there is very little else you can be doing especially because if you aren't combining it is most likely wet.

Also I'm glad that the Pecos Kid has decided to join us out here at Poker Curious.  His blog will be full of insight I'm sure as well as being able to track him through the limits.  You will be able to learn alot about being a pro from him and I'm sure it won't take him long until he is were he needs to be.  Especially since he will be playing rush which means he will be seeing way more hands than most players except those 24 tabling nuts.  Anways if you have any NL cash questions or hands you should definitely post them seeing as how the PC roster now has some more fire power to help with your games.

It seems there has been lots of talk about accountability and such around PC as of late.  This is good because without a community around you and supporting you in this area it can always be easy to delve into the depths of self loathing and start blaming other things for your own lack of performance on the table.  Just so you know the rest of this blog is about variance and how it can affect your game.  To start though I would like to show you a pitcure of Mr. Variance.  As you can tell by looking at him it is no surprise why one feels so uncomfortable after getting blind sided by him.

One of the most common subjects that players will use to blame is variance.  I understand that variance is part of the game and it can cause you to go through massive up and down swings.  However sometimes variance is just a word that we hide behind to make ourselves feel better about a losing session much like the one I had yesterday.  It spanned 2300 hands and -6 bi.  Some say this is standard and maybe I should have stopped at around 4.  However there were some major soft spots in the game and I just felt that my dominating hands would start to hold back up eventually.  Which sadly they never did.  However I just started to say to myself, "Don't worry it's just variance".  Well this morning I decided to take all my losing hands from that session and replay them out of my HEM program.  I saw some things I wasn't pleased with.  Some of the hands are standard and I can't play them any differently.  There are certain spots getting 10 or 11 to 1 I am just not folding any river with my set or pocket AA on those board textures.  Just not going to happen.  However I still wasn't playing my A game.  Maybe it was my C game it is hard to tell.  In the end though I was leaking more than a PMSing teenage girl seeing Titanic for the first time.  I was making bad raises, bad calls when I should have been raising, too light call downs, looking for value that was too thin and the list probably goes on.

Should have I noticed this at the time.  Probably however in the heat of the game it is often very hard to see these things.  I even took a large break at one point to clear my head and come back to the table refreshed and ready to go.  But once I started losing again my play went out the window and I wasn't in the proper mindset to fix it so I should have stopped.  However I didn't.  So in reality in a way I was really the maker of my own demise last night.  Looking at my current win rate though maybe that is more aligned to my play right now, its really hard to say until I put in like 80k more hands.  Anyways I guess my point is that when things don't seem to be going your way, look at your play and analyze what is going on.  You might be shocked at what you find, and maybe variance wasn't your worst enemy after all.  So keep your heads up and good luck at the tables.