And You Are...?

Please allow me to re-introduce myself. I am a poker blogger. Not that you'd get any sense of that at all based on the past few weeks of posts. Well, have I got a surprise for you:

I played poker this weekend.

First, I have to point out some recent brilliance amongst my celebrated peers who are apparently living inside of my head, such do their pointed insights hit my mental bulls-eye. It is something I've said before and it continues to be more true with each passing day: I have learned more about this game from blogs and bloggers than from any other source. The honor roll:

ScurvyDog talks about being relenteless. At the tables and in your approach.
HDouble takes us along the path to poker mastery.
Pauly gets all philosophical about improvement--in all walks of life--and plaid skirts and knee socks.
Chad talks about plateaus and fighting bordom on the virtual felt.

It really is uncanny how these things appear right when I need them. While I haven't had a blinding epiphany of any sort, some dark corners have certainly been illuminated.

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I've played about 6 hours of poker in the last 3 weeks. I've had no motivation to play, save for the first day back from my vacation (and that didn't go so well). But, with the wife and boy sleeping away on Saturday night, fortified by several malt beverages, I fired up a .50/$1 NL game on Stars. "Hey, ol' buddy!"

Crush.

You know those hands you get where you've got the other guy in a bad spot only he doesn't know it? Got about 4 of those in the first 20 minutes. AQo v. my 77 with a Q76 flop? Check. Please click the chip tray to re-buy, sir. JJ running into my KK, all undercards on the flop? Check. Turned a straight? Congrats. I turned the flush.

It was Poker Nirvana. Haven't had the deck smack me around like that in a while. I stuck around for a couple hours, my bets suddenly not getting called any longer, until I shut it down up 2 1/2 buy-ins. I can't exactly say it did wonders for my confidence, seeing as there's little difficulty in playing the hands I mentioned, but it was nice to see Mistress Variance swing the other way for a change, if only to remind me that yes, my dominant hands will occasionally win.

And I was ready to play some more, but didn't have the time on Sunday, because I had to return to a different field of play after more than five months of inactivity.

I skipped our summer soccer league this year for several reasons. One, it's fucking hot in Orange County in the summer. Two, since our move, I'm 70 miles from the field, instead of 20. That's a long day. Three, I'm not getting any younger. While I can still play at my age, I'm not wild about walking funny all the way into Wednesday after a Sunday afternoon game.

But, like poker, here's the thing: I missed it. Badly. I missed playing. I missed seeing my friends every week. I missed slide-tackling some douchebags.

So, yesterday, while the result was not as hoped--and unlucky 2-2 draw that we dominated for the final 45--it was awesome to be back out there. And a little surprising that I didn't totally suck. I've only kicked AJ's size 1 soccer ball during the hiatus. I've run nowhere. Hence, I expected both my fitness and touch to be lacking. Happily, it was only the former which was an issue.

Another reason I'm so geeked about it is a position change. I've played holding central midfielder for this team for the last 10 years. But we've picked up a couple guys in my absence who play there, and play there well. Of our midfield corps, probably four of them are better suited for that slot than I at this point (stronger, quicker, better ball control in tight spaces). So I suggested a switch to the left side of midfield. You know, where Macca used to play. Tactically, I have a great feel for that slot. And more space to work. Just a perfect fit and it worked well yesterday. Looking forward to more of it.

So good to be back. On all fronts.