Sweet Action

Okay, so, not so much with the poker lately. I know, its lame, this is supposed to be a poker blog, blah, blah, blah. Trust me, I want to play but it’s the same old song and dance. I only have snatches of time here and there, and by the time I get home in the evening I’m in no kind of mental shape to play. I stay disciplined and don’t play so my bankroll won’t bleed into nothingness. Of course, doing this causes more rust development on the debatably shiny outer shell of my game, but for me the trade-off is okay. In my case it’s easier to knock off a bit of rust than summon the mental fortitude necessary to rebuild a roll that was decimated due to something preventable.

So where does that leave me? Am I doomed to walk the clean, antiseptic, fluorescently lit hallways of a life without degenerate activity?

I think not.

Thanks to the ever-developing and omnipresent In-Tar-Web I am able to keep my degenerate badge by participating in the other quasi-legal activities it makes available to me.

Namely, sports betting. Oh yeah.

I’ve never hated sports, per se, it’s just that my wide variety of other interests always seem to trump them. However, during the last two weeks I have caught myself multiple times in Kramer-esque body seizures, prognosticating about events of which I have no real knowledge, and declaring, “That’s some sweet action!” I have no idea whether the action is really that sweet or not. Most likely it’s not. But I do love saying it. A lot.

In fact, I’m on the action drip at this very moment. I have a 2-team parlay going on Miami and Sacramento. Looking forward to the games (which I may not even watch) is enough to keep me satiated all day. It’s like the nicotine patch. Just replace nicotine with “Sweet Action.” Sweet passive gambooooling action, yes sir.

Did I mention I’m a fan of Let it Ride?

All of these thoughts coalesced this morning while I was moving funds around and planning wild and baseless betting strategies. When I actually do the betting, it’s normally on more solid ground, but it sure is fun to screw around off the beaten path. Poker is still my game, and thankfully I can summon enough intelligence on a regular basis to keep it that way since it is truly the +EV choice for the gambler who cares, but I believe my seriousness about the game will only be to a certain point. I say this because of emotional tilt factors that come into play when I pass that invisible line, and it’s this knowledge which prompts me to declare the following reevaluation. I’m a poker player, yes, but I’m mostly just a guy who likes to gamble. While sports betting may or may not be a good thing EV-wise, it has helped recapture the sense that there are plenty of things out there over which I have no control, things that worrying and tilting won’t help. In regards to poker this is one of the best reminders I could have come across. Given my personal proclivity towards tilt I think it will only help in the long run.

Now that is some sweet action.

Update: Big oops on that Miami bet. What the fuck was I thinking? What a tard I am.