Marathon Man

Sore? Whatchu know about running a marathon? Whatchu know about WRITING one? (Warning, we've got a marathon of a blog post here.)


On Saturday, I finally owned up to myself and decided to take on a long distance run. Okay, so it wasn't quite a marathon. However, for a guy who wakes up and pushes buttons hoping for miracles, the thought of a 25 km run was almost laughable. 25 km? Pfft, no way my three-years-out-of-high-school body could survive the first 100 meters. Let alone how affected my ADD-riddled brain would be, enduring the monotony of running constantly passing field after field. It seemed like the epitome of a horrible Saturday afternoon. However, in the first kilometer of my run, it really dawned on me what I was missing by staying so inactive all these months. Yes, I was sweating instantly (weather: flawless) but there was something more about running than just being in the fresh air. Freedom. It's a simple little kind of free, listlessly floating through the air, doing your body some good, putting your body into motion, connecting to your music while you connect to yourself. It really evokes a lot of self-reflection, something that in my opinion, is lost in every day life. We all do what we do, but in reality, we never really question our own interior motivations. In the words of the great Rick James, "I never just did things just to do them." (Mind you, he's talking about grinding his feet on Eddie Murphy's couch, but I digress...) All I'm saying, is that deciding to go for a run can be difficult for anybody, but that's not the point. It's about goal-setting and reaching your goals. Once you set your mind to doing anything and you accomplish your goal, the emotional reward is absolutely worth it. In poker, it just happens to be a nice monetary reward for success as well. :-) The physical toll of running... well, maybe don't start with 25km. Three days later, and this poor fragile body is still feeling the effects.


Currently, I'm sitting here now, watching a couple great poker players grind out various final tables for thousands of dollars. Incredible? Absolutely. During my final table run of the $27.50, I was asked about how I stayed so cavalier. I was talking to a friend of mine about the rush of the actual play of a final table, and how detached it actually becomes about the money. It's totally in the competitive nature of not only the poker player, but human beings. This gives me a good life thesis statement: The drive to succeed at everything is what motivates me. As I write this, Daniel Negreanu is heads up for the 5 card NL draw bracelet. As he tweets about it, he doesn't mention the $11,000 first prize, but the bracelet. A bracelet! On topic, I got to thinking about the future and how, someday, I would approach playing someone like Negreanu, Dwan, or Hellmuth at a table. Would I be seated solely for the thrill of the "celebrity effect"? Poker is beautiful in a sense that you have that easy, but costly access to playing with the best there is. In real life, I can't call up Roger Federer to ask for a tennis match. Roll up to the Bellagio, and you could find yourself playing against the very pros you watch on TV. Of course, I say this candidly, because I unless I win a Sunday Million in the near future I don't see this happening any time soon. (#whoknows) (A friend of a friend just chopped the $11 deep stack for $1k! Woot! What a grind!) After getting fairly psyched up for today's $11 400k, I busted two hands in, nut flush < full house. (Ad9s < TsTd on a 228T5, dddd board. Check-check turn = Fun times for my stack on the river.) Either way, my passion for actually playing has subsided, and it's actually quite depressing. I watch all this action happen around me, and I know the correct plan of action is to put in volume. I just can't will myself to get over this downswing by investing more of what I can't afford right now, both in time and money. However, I'm really starting to focus on the psychology behind what is actually taking place at the poker table. It's a nice, new perspective. 


Anyway, another day of life and whatever comes along with it! Cheers! :-)