Patience, Whether It's With Photos Or Poker Is A Good Thing

Checking out one of my daily photography blogs that I like to read, A Little News had a post dealing with photographic patience. Simply put, it's a good read whether you are interested in photographic patience or rather the concept of patience in general (with a couple of nice photos as well).

Last night I dived into a bit of poker patience during my night playing poker at Jake's Hold'em For Habitat. Whether it was news of the upcoming week being off due to the remodel of the dining space (and thus no poker), the masses ascended on Jake's in numbers I can only remember seeing at the World Series that I played in. Simply put, it's a great environment to play Texas hold'em poker, whether you are great or just starting out. The money goes to Habitat For Humanity and winning gives you bragging rights AND it only costs $5, unless you bust out early.

Last night there were many many many rebuys, and thus the chips in play with the rebuys and amount of people made the need to have some poker patience essential. Of course this went out the window right away when I hit the nut-flush and was able to get an all-in and double up right from the start, Yeah!

I was sitting next to Lyle, who didn't dominate in his usual sense (see, the house doesn't always win). I know he had to rebuy at least once, but it wasn't just him, because based on his numbers and recap there were more than 20 rebuys alone. Trust me, that's a lot.

The main thing about the large playing field, was that it meant any victory would not be obtained quickly, especially with the amount of rebuys. I made a slight error when I was dealt pocket jacks. The pot got raised up a bit and then pre-flop I pushed all-in. I was called and pocket kings were shown. Ouch! I was ready to lose a big stack of my chips when on the river another jack hit. I think this was the most emotion I have shown at Jake's with fist pumping and thanking the poker gods. Proof that the best hand doesn't always win.

Of course after that I didn't hit many other good pots or hands and the blinds started to widdle away at my chips. Now, when your chip stack us dwindling, that's when poker patience is key. When the blinds are going around you look at your chips and think, 'should I push all in now, or wait?' Depending on the amount of chips and how many times the blinds pass you, makes this decision easier as the number draws closer to zero. I looked and saw that my chips stack was getting closer to being non-existent, so I pushed all in with a decent hand. I had a king and was able to hit it and thus doubled up my short stack.

Of course the chips I won weren't enough to truly fix the damage, so soon enough my poker patience was tested once again. I had about four hands to be dealt before the blinds would hit me and put me just about all-in without a choice. I knew that it was a matter of getting a decent hand and going with it. Of course, a suited queen was dealt to me, and I went for it. Going all-in on a flush hope is risky, considering my other card was a three. I had clubs and two clubs hit on the flop. My eyes lit up and I thought I had exercised a good play, but no more clubs came on the turn or river.

True, I busted out, but I also saw that I exercised much more poker patience than the other people who had to rebuy early. Sure, it's all for a good cause, so last week when I busted out early I did a rebuy. Going in this week, I told myself that I needed to use my poker patience to go further, and overall, I did. It's so easy to simply feel the rush and go for it, but smart poker is having patience and simply put, it's good to have it everywhere else in your life as well.