joey! joey! joey!

Can you hear the crowd chanting? Joey! Joey! Joey! It's been a LONG time since Joey Harrington (Detroit Lions) has heard that. They say (and I always believed) that the game is SO much faster in the pros. Don't believe it? Watch a weekend of college footbal, then watch Monday night football. Fast.

When a college quarterback finally makes the adjustment, the "game slows down" for him. Unless of course, you never make the adjustment. Like so many quarterbacks before him... Don't make the adjustment and you always look lost out there, having to scramble and run for 5 yards on 3rd and seven. Or throwing to the outlet receiver on 3rd and 10 and hope that through some miracle he can add 6 more yards to the 4 yard throw. Rarely.

So what does all this mean? Well, I played in my monthly 3 table last night. I did well. The game slowed down for me last night. I made good decisions, was never in over my head, and put myself in a position to win.

When we were down to 3, the chip leader got sucked out on by second place, putting me on the short stack a few hands later. I doubled up in the BB and SB to get back to alive, winning with 93o and 23o. The blinds went up a few hands later and again was all-in, but this time with a big hand like AK and it held up. In the end, Mrs. Columbo (who had majorly sucked out on the chip leader KJ vs AA) got the brunt of my suckouts and went out 3rd. I then hit trip queens during heads up and took home the prize.

Was there much skill in those last hands? No, not really. It was like throwing the big ben pass with seconds left to get in field goal range, running down the field, spiking the ball and kicking the winning field goal with 2 seconds left on the clock.

The real game happend in the previous 58 minutes of play, or in this case, the previous 10 levels of play. You need to put yourself in a position to win. As with most of my best play, I was never the chip leader, I was never running over the table, but I was making good decisions. And there is a ton of value in that.

Some players are looser and rely on building up a stack. That is all well and good, but I just dont play that way. I used to be concerned about it, but I am not anymore. I am started to develop my poker instincts, and I can only hope that it continues in bigger stakes games.

By the way, there were two KILLER articles in this months card player. One was why it is correct to race QQ against AK in a big field event. Great article. The second was how to play an "ambi" (amibidextrous split) hand in O8B. Look them up. They are very good articles.

Ok, enough self examination. I can not wait for the WBPT. Not only did I not attend previous events, but I know no one! But why let that stop me??? After all, I am the "wannabe", right?