Shorts Weather

It is now shorts weather in Las Vegas, which means that the World Series of Poker is about to begin. Inasmuch as it is a new fiscal year in the poker community, I decided to make some goals. I set a monetary goal, a body weight goal, and a mental goal to get me ready for the big dance. My monetary goal was simple. I wanted to win my World Series of Poker playing budget during March and April, so that I could be freerolling, in a sense. This task required many hours of playing ring games, and, of course, winning. My weight goal is to get myself back to what I used to refer to as my fighting weight (190 pounds). This goal is attainable, because it's in my complete control. I can work out or diet. The mental goal may be the most difficult to achieve. When I use the phrase mental goal, I am referring to getting completely focused. When focused, it is easy to make the proper calls, raises, or laydowns. Some people try to focus by playing in many tournaments, whereas others like to do some form of meditation. I recently had the chance to do both.

I decided to fly down to San Diego for the weekend to play in the Omaha event during the Rat Pack tournament at Ocean's Eleven Casino in Oceanside, California. Before I entered the casino, I spent some time at the beach looking at the ocean. To me, the ocean is a way to soothe my thoughts, clear my mind, and concentrate on any issues that may be prevalent in my life at the time. So, I looked at the water and discovered a couple of flaws that I had in my Omaha game. I thought about the importance of scooping pots instead of trying to get lucky to win half a pot. If only I could remember this when I sat down in the tournament.

As I entered the casino, I saw many cool photos of the original "Rat Pack" on my way to the tournament room. The tournament room itself is one of the nicest in which I have played, and the event was run to perfection. Star McCormick, the wonderful Ocean's Eleven tournament director, started by reading the rules. One thing that she said that I love is that player abuse and dealer abuse are not tolerated at Ocean's Eleven. That's great! Every hour, they had cash giveaways for the next player to win the high side of a pot at a designated table. The problem was that I wasn't involved in too many hands. However, I did benefit by staying around long enough for the buffet. Everybody was bragging about the chef, Dave. They claimed that he is the best chef west of the Mississippi. Well, I wasn't disappointed. I got up for my first visit to the buffet. As I mentioned earlier, I am trying to get down to my fighting weight, and my diet is important. So, I started off with only fresh fruit on my first visit. Perfect, I thought. I made it through the buffet without having any chicken parmesan or seafood fettuccini. I went back to my table, and lost the remainder of my chips. Of course, I then made my second visit to the buffet … and a third – so much for the diet!