Expectation

Expectation is a weird thing. I was really cranked up for a few tournaments this weekend, especially the Poker Cruise tournament hosted by Poker Source Online at Absolute Poker.

I didn't really play poorly in the tournament, getting into good situations and pushing other players out when I felt they were weak. I crippled myself when I called an all-in with AJs vs KQo who rivered a queen. I misjudged the size of his stack and the effect it would have if I lost based on the increasing blinds. I'm not sure if I would make the same play again If I had it to do over again.

So I have a very dissatisfied feeling about the weekend, even though I increased my overall bankroll by more than 10%. This is a substantial gain for me, and I doubt I have matched such a large gain in several months. Yet I still feel like I had a poor weekend because of my MTT tournament play.

It might also have to do with how I was winning. It seemed like every NL game I played in I got busted almost immediately, then came back in a big way. So I constantly felt like I was fighting my way back, when in fact I really fought back easily and made big strides into profit.

SNGs also seem to feel fairly unrewarding. I won one easily, covering the table when there were still 5 players left at one on Full Tilt Poker. Another few seconds and thirds thrown in for a nice overall profit, but that one game where your KK lost when 22 flopped a full house and you finished in eighth out of nine really sticks in your craw. Shouldn't you have figured out you were beat?

It's bad when winning in ring games is unfulfilling, because that's where the real money is. Scoring big in an MTT is great, but that kind of success is so infrequent that you better not count on it to make your poker play satisfying.

Maybe I need to cash out my $400 that I won this weekend and buy something to remind myself that winning money in ring games is what poker is really all about. As long as you can beat the ring games, the rest is all gravy.