Where do we go from here????

OK, some issues are distressing me somewhat.

Firstly, there is the matter of Luke Ivory parting company with the Fitz. I have no idea what happened, and I am not going to speculate about it either, beyond saying that it is not normal for someone to 'decide' to leave their job. Obviously something happened to trigger this and I am sad about this as the Fitz has been for a number of years my club of choice to go to, and one where I felt almost at home. Luke was a big part of that, and I don't think anyone can underestimate the impact of having someone as personable, likeable, and knowledgeable as the front man for your poker operations. It is a big loss for the Fitz, and I don't really know what it is going to look like in a few months without him there.

It doesn't take a genius to work out that it is extremely likely that Luke will be in another club in Dublin at some point in the near future, whether this is a new club or an existing one, and due to the nature of a good few of the old school regulars who seem nearly brand loyal, then it appears to me that their brand is Luke. This could have a big effect on the numbers attending the Fitz, and a further dilution of the alreday strained market is not really what I am hoping for.

The poker scene has developed in the last few years in Dublin, and whereas when I started playing in the Fitz, some 42 months ago, a €100 Freezeout was a big deal, and something to be aspired to almost, but not anymore. People have gotten fussier, more demanding, and expect lots from every tournament they play. If there is a new cardroom to develop out of this, then the 'more of the same' approach is not something that will be good for the game I think. Numbers have fallen off in recent times somewhat with the SE and the Jackpot competing with the Fitz as well as the pub games and home games that some people love to play. Luke is a great TD and a great guy, but from a selfish point of view I hope this doesn't make it more difficult to get a good game. Who knows what will happen to the Fitz's poker room, but I suspect that whoever is put in charge will try to keep things as they are. I hope that this does not affect the current staff too much either, as I don't really like change. One way or another I probably won't be in any time soon anyways, for reasons I will get into now.

Anyways, enough about that. I am off to Vegas on July 2nd, and I am looking forward to that, but there are a few things troubling me.

1. I have not won a seat in the main event of the WSOP.
2. I have not tried to win a seat in the main event of the WSOP.
3. I am on a terrible run lately, so my funds are somewhat dwindling.
4. I may not be able to have as much fun over there as I had hoped.

All in all though I am still going to enjoy it as much as I can, and if things are going badly over there at the start I will just have to be cleverer about it and spend my money in a more targeted fashion.

This is not a fact that I am proud of overall, but I have been keeping detailed records of my live play for 23 months. In the first 16 months I had 12 winning, and 4 losing months. In the last 7 months (including this month) they have all been losing months for me. There have still been a few high points, like qualifying for the Irish Open, and some decent cash results, but almost universally my tournament game sucks (to use an Americanism). I won't embarrass myself with any further stats, but I don't know what way to take this? Is this a downswing? Was I experiencing positive variance before and now it is evening itself out? It is a very depressing issue and one that will be keeping me out of the cardrooms for a few weeks (I might visit once, for a €50 tournie or something though). It is helping that for the next 2 weekends I have to go away, so that temptation is removed, but it won't help me overcome my problems.

Is the game changing and I am not keeping up? Is it just a prolonged spell of bad variance combined with the poorer play that goes along with such runs? I know several others on bad runs as well, and from reading blogs I know it is a common thing. Poker does seem to go on streaks to a certain extent. I do not know why this is, as cards have no memory, and there should be no reasons for clustering like this. The one issue though that does lead to this, and it is often the hardest one to spot, is how you are palying. Even a small change in your game subconsciously can affect the outcome of a couple of key hands, and this may lead to a knock in confidence, which in turn leads to more subconscious errors. However, I am really trying hard to eradicate this type of crap from my game, but it does not seem to be working. What I would like to know though, is why it rarely seems to happen to me that my AA get into a situation where I am up against KK. but the other way around seems to happen with far more regularity?

It is a conspiracy I tells ya.

I really must try though to qualify for the WSOP. What I will do I think is try to play in the Stars, and FT supersatellities where they are guaranteeing 150 and 100 seats respectively. It will be a big ask to get one of these seats as there will likely be around 7000 in the stars one, and around 2500 in the FT game, so plenty of luck and concentration will be needed. the problem with this though is that they are on the 17th of June, and earlier that evening I am coming back from a stag party in Slovakia, so I might not be in tip top shape to be honest. Hopefully I can give it a shot though, and not be lazy about it.

Roll on Vegas.