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Sideways, not the movie
Aug. 21st, 2005 06:13 pmThe struggle continues. At least no-one can accuse me of not putting in the hours. When it's tough, the long grind seems to be the only way forward. On the plus side, I've ended up on the plus side the past three days. On the minus side, the plusses have not been very much and each and every one of them has been a many-hour struggle. Fripperies such as 25c-50c PLO, 5 euro tournaments and the like have been left by the wayside as I focus on getting my limit game back in order.
Although I wrote that I played better when things were going badly than I played when things were going well (because I am more appreciative of the value of every bet), this should have come with one important caveat. After many hours of zilchness and being outdrawn by the loose player on your right every time, you start to try to make things happen with cards that don't merit it. This is a well-known phenomenon mentioned in at least a couple of books I can think of off the top of my head. In a way, it's tilt, and for that reason it's a good idea to stop playing when you feel yourself playing like this. Alternatively, you can try to stop yourself behaving this way. I tried the latter route, with some success, I feel. But it still looks line an overall loss for the month, unless I get some kind of miraculous run in the last 10 days of August.
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I see that Michael Buerk is being accused of having a "mid-life crisis in public". I'm a bit puzzled at why the young media gets so mocking of "mid-life crises". They really are quite rational things to suffer as you realize that time is running out. It's not an attempt to recapture your youth or move with the younger set, but the stark realization that, once you get to 30-something, doors stop opening for the first time and start closing for the last time. This is, to say the least, depressing. It is hardly surprising therefore that it should cause some angst amongst men of a certain age. Hell, this is LIFE we are talking about here. You only get one go, and a mid-life crisis is just a sign that someone recognizes this fact. It's not surprising that men have mid-life crises. What's surprising is that they don't have bigger ones. I'm amazed that there aren't 40-something men the length and breadth of the UK just getting up from their jobs in their thousands and doing a Reginald Perrin. Instead, most of them seem to accept their lot in life, and continue their rather boring and uneventful slow journey towards death.
A route which I too, now I think about it, am meekly following.
Although I wrote that I played better when things were going badly than I played when things were going well (because I am more appreciative of the value of every bet), this should have come with one important caveat. After many hours of zilchness and being outdrawn by the loose player on your right every time, you start to try to make things happen with cards that don't merit it. This is a well-known phenomenon mentioned in at least a couple of books I can think of off the top of my head. In a way, it's tilt, and for that reason it's a good idea to stop playing when you feel yourself playing like this. Alternatively, you can try to stop yourself behaving this way. I tried the latter route, with some success, I feel. But it still looks line an overall loss for the month, unless I get some kind of miraculous run in the last 10 days of August.
+++
I see that Michael Buerk is being accused of having a "mid-life crisis in public". I'm a bit puzzled at why the young media gets so mocking of "mid-life crises". They really are quite rational things to suffer as you realize that time is running out. It's not an attempt to recapture your youth or move with the younger set, but the stark realization that, once you get to 30-something, doors stop opening for the first time and start closing for the last time. This is, to say the least, depressing. It is hardly surprising therefore that it should cause some angst amongst men of a certain age. Hell, this is LIFE we are talking about here. You only get one go, and a mid-life crisis is just a sign that someone recognizes this fact. It's not surprising that men have mid-life crises. What's surprising is that they don't have bigger ones. I'm amazed that there aren't 40-something men the length and breadth of the UK just getting up from their jobs in their thousands and doing a Reginald Perrin. Instead, most of them seem to accept their lot in life, and continue their rather boring and uneventful slow journey towards death.
A route which I too, now I think about it, am meekly following.
