Solid Play and Patience

Last night I was leaving work and the truck started rough then died.  After that it would turn over but it wouldn't act like it was trying to start.  It felt like it flooded.  After half an hour of turning the key trying to get it to fire again, I got the idea to press lightly on the gas as I turned the ignition.  It gurgled and sputtered but finally started.  Not sure what's up with that.  The rest of the night it started fine.

I picked up the kids and went to volleyball.  I was having fun until right at the end.  I went up for a spike and caught the ball wrong with my finger.  I heard a popping sound and my whole hand went numb.  Worse than that the ball came off akward and went out of bounds.  My finger hurts today.  It's probably either a jam or a sprain.  I think I'd be in a lot worse pain if it is broken.

We got home from volleyball and I settled into the recliner to play some poker.  I started off horrible, and got worse.  I wish I could blame it on getting it in with the best hand and getting beat.  That wasn't the case.  Tilt was the issue, along with horrible play. 

The more I play cash games, the more I realize that you have to have patience and you have to play solid all of the time.  It helps to take every edge you can get.  I played sloppy.  I went into hands without knowing what I was going to do after the flop, turn or river.  I was easy money.

Thankfully, I took a break and thought through what I had been doing.  I knew I wasn't going to recoup my losses for the night but I could continue to play and hope to get some back. 

The rest of the night went a little better even though I did not gain much ground by the time I quit.  At least I wasn't throwing money away any longer.

I lost at least 4 buy ins pushing with crap hands due to tilting.  Each time they had a made hand.  Had I not done that I would only be a buy in down for the night.  Instead I was down 5.  There were definately other areas to improve on as well. 

Tonight, I need to concentrate on solid play and patience.

On top of cash I played 3 .50 sng's.  Those turned out a little better as I took 2 2nds and a 1st for a profit of 3.15.  That made my profit for last night (7.70).  I played 599 hands for a loss of 10.85.  Rakeback also helped take a little sting out of the night.

What hurts, is that a few nights ago I was showing a profit for the first time in cash.  Then, I left town for the weekend and come back to play horribly for 2 nights putting myself right back to where I was at.