Running Bad

I am currently sitting in my hotel room in the beautiful Crown Casino in Melbourne Australia. This place is nice! Besides the excellent venue, my trip to the World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific has been quite brutal. In this article, I am going to give you an honest look into my world and how I deal with life when things are going poorly. Please don’t view this article as one long complaint. I want to show you that even professionals have difficulties while traveling the circuit.

So far, I have lost six out of six events. In every single event, I doubled up within the first two levels but then lost most of my all-ins, which is quite disappointing. I tend to be getting my money in decently well, so I realize it is only a matter of time before I start winning some of them. When you lose numerous all-ins in a row, make a point to figure out if you are actually playing well. If you happen to get all-in with very little equity or if you find that you are all-in and behind for your tournament life every time, you are probably making some mistakes. I make a point to write down most of my hands. So far, I think I am playing reasonably well. That being said, it is easy to get discouraged.

I have a problem in that when I am off my standard sleep schedule, I tend to be in an overall bad mood. Through trial and error, I have learned that it is super important for me to be on the right sleep schedule. When I am off my sleep schedule, I simply feel bad, whereas when I am sleeping well, I feel great. Traveling to Australia is perhaps the toughest place in the world for me to acclimate. It took 30 hours for me to fly here.

Despite my best efforts, I am still waking up at roughly 4 a.m. local time. Combined with the fact that the tournaments start a bit later than they typically do in America, sometime between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., it feels like I am setting myself up for disaster. I am working hard on staying up late so I can sleep late, allowing me to remain focused deep into the events, assuming I start winning some hands. I fully plan to be waking up at 10 a.m. once the main event starts in a week.

I am also having an impossible time finding a stable internet connection. While the internet in my hotel room works marginally well, it is not good enough for me to risk $5,000 in online action. I spent a decent amount of time talking with the concierge, trying to get the connection working up to my standards. Spending hours on the phone with no real progress is frustrating. Seeing how I factored in playing lots of online poker into my decision to come to Australia, I am a bit disappointed.

Despite the setbacks, I am doing my best to stay in a positive state of mind. I am making a point to go to the gym on most mornings and to drink very little. I am going to try to schedule in some spa time on one of the upcoming days when there is no event for me (For example, I skipped the $5,000 8-game event). I am also doing my best to eat right. I always travel with Living Fuel Super Greens, which tastes fairly bad, but is supposed to be good for you. I also found a salad place that is decent enough. There are loads of amazing high-end restaurants at the casino, but I usually don’t like spending lots of money while eating alone. Succeeding at poker demands many skills beyond simply playing good poker! At least for me, staying sane is tough.

I have pretty much decided that this will be my last trip to Australia for a long time. I simply cannot justify the long, expensive flight and the 14-hour time difference. Even though I love the venue, I recognize I cannot play my best here. As a professional poker player, it is important to know your limitations. While it almost feels like I am admitting defeat, my decision is almost certainly a significant victory. ♠

Jonathan Little, 2-time World Poker Tour champion has won more than $6 million in tournaments since 2006. He is sponsored by 3bet.com, Instapoker and BlueSharkOptics and teaches poker at FloatTheTurn.com and www.JonathanLittleSecrets.com. Follow him on Twitter @ JonathanLittle.