Monday, July 23, 2007

Miscellaneous Stuff

I’ve created a new method of accomplishing small tasks. I break each hour down into 5-minute intervals, then assign 12 small tasks to complete. I know it sounds absolutely bonkers and ridiculous, but 5-minute tasks are not overwhelming. In fact, they’re easy to accomplish. This may be the trick to completing larger projects that take me forever to finish. Like home remodeling. Screenplays. I’ve turned tasks into games. I’ve always used a version of this method, but I’ve never broken things down into such small units before. So far it’s worked. I’ve getting things done, even ugly things. 5 minutes is nothing.

I played around 5-6 hours of poker over the weekend. I’m noticing in my cash play that I sometimes sabotage my stack by making ridiculous bets, hoping my opponent will fold. However, it’s clear my opponent has a hand. This happened yesterday when I had AK on a TT8 flop. I had raised prefop and the bb called. The bb bet out and I raised all in. I was pretty much drawing dead as he had AT. I did that again the day before when I had AJ and the board was 679J. I pushed all in and was called by a set. Horrible. I really need to erase that play from my game plan. The only hands calling me are hands that beat me. At any rate, even though I made a few horrid plays, I still managed to win $50 for the weekend. I’m down about $130 total since playing cash games this month. I’m playing very low limits (.25/.50), and finding that when I play four tables at once I do better than playing only one. Perhaps it’s because I play more disciplined. I’m not playing a hand if I don’t have to, especially since playing four tables can get real crazy. The downside, of course, to playing four tables is you miss a lot of information. The game is so easy when the cards fall my way. I’m getting better at picking up weakness. Most of the players at this level will advertise exactly what they have. A big all in push almost always means the nuts. I’m growing less inclined to make this play because it’s so obvious. One play I’ve been doing a lot is betting around half the pot on the river with what appears to be the nuts. If I’m raised, I’ve lost and will fold. It’s a good protection type bet that has actually won me lots of pots when I had nothing.

I leave for Seattle and Calgary in a few days. My current cash flow situation is pretty bad. I need to win a poker tournament at some point because I’m running out of money to pay for things. I’ve reconsolidated my credit card bills so I have one more year to earn a big payday. With the information I’m learning from PokerXFactor.com, I’m hopeful I’ll one day score that big win. Luck sure plays a big part in poker tournaments though. I have been somewhat unlucky with my major holdings (last night my KK lost to QQ when a Q hit on the river...this has been happening to me with great frequency this month). Everything evens out in the long run though.

Screenwriting. I have not been devoting much time to screenwriting, but that is about to change. I have a new script I’m writing with Chris (our romantic comedy) and Don’s Making a Prophet script which I feel absolutely no confidence in tackling. But I am determined to complete the assignment (even though it’s two years overdue). This is where my 5-minute assignment game can really make a difference, I think. I hope. I need to get that script monkey off my back (the way I was able to get Grandudes off my back).
I’ve done it before, and I’m in a good place to do it now.

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