10:45am Just a quick entry in today's journal as we have a beautiful day in the Northeast today and I'm thoroughly enjoying a long weekend. And even though the Eurex and Globex sessions have been open, I've chosen to take this extra day as R&R to gear up for what will be my most important September to December run ever. (Two small sequences to avoid trigger-lock and keep the blood flowing.)
The only downside to the weekend was that I lost an all-in hand in a Foxwoods cash game Sunday AM ... losing an Ace-High flush to a Full House where the guy caught runner-runner 5s to pair the board and turn his trips (which I figured he had) into the dreaded FH. Nothing like starting with AQ suited, catching the flush, getting the other guy to bet and even curse when we showed the hands before the turn, and then drowning on a river suck-out. Granted, it was only about $200, but for a $1/$2 cash game it was a decent size $400+ pot.
That hand was the end to one of those frustrating sessions where I laid down (1) pocket Qs pre-flop, (2) two straights at the river, and (3) three two-pairs ... one of which was Aces and Queens ... all of which ended up being the right call. And the one hand were I made the correct decision to not fold pre-river, I lost to the much lower probability. Seven strong hands and all were second-best. Go figure.
At that point, I called it an early day, drove the 2+ hours back home, and spent the rest of the day taking my wife to the beach and then a nice dinner on a simply gorgeous evening. It was the best $200 loss I'd ever experienced. Correct decisions all day long. Let's hope that carries forward into the next few months.
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4 comments:
Don,
Found your blog via link from another trader. I'm learning poker now and am fascinated with the parallels to trading. Poker is an excellent mental exercising tool for traders in that the odds can change on you in the middle of a trade (hand) and you constantly need to reassess your probabilities of winning.
Cheers.
Hi Jack.
I believe your comment that playing pooker is an "excellent mental exercising tool" is right on.
While I don't ever expect to become a poker pro, I feel strongly that the last year of poker "dabbling" has been one of the main contributors to this year's trading results ... some of which I touched on in my July 6th "Poker Impacts" post.
I think (and hope) you'll find the same at your end. And if you haven't yet read "The Tao of Poker" by Larry Phillips, you may find it the best $10 you've ever spent on trading education :-). It's a great read.
Nice to "meet" you.
Don
Thanks for the recommendation. I'll order it now.
As for results, the main reason I mentioned reassessing probabilities is because of the results I've already seen.
I "flop" trades much quicker than I ever used to, and that alone has made an impact.
Happy trading.
Jack
terminology error. meant to say "fold" instead of flop.
cheers
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