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Part 1: The Ladies Event & $1000 No Limit Hold 'Em (cont'd.)
While my cousin chats on her cell phone and keeps postponing her morning shower, I will see how much poker-post I can squeeze in before I take her to see the sights.
The morning of the Ladies Event: Limousines (what else?) arrived to whisk us away to the Rio. In addition to the crowd from the night before, we were joined by Jean Smart and Mena Suvari. The Team Hollywood Poker Diamonds were now complete and ready to rock. After picture-taking and autograph-signing (them, not me) we found our way to our assigned seats. After the now four immortal poker words (you know them, I know you know them, let's move on) and the admonishment not to drop the F-bomb, cards were in the air. At 56 minutes, my folks signaled me with the thumbs up. I had bested my previous performance.
Major confession: I hated playing with the Ladies. Girls, we have the talent to play this game. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise. There are girls out there who can beat most of the boys most of the time. Men will always tell you they have a hard time getting a read on us and we can be out there using this to our advantage. They also think we're afraid to play with anything but the stone-cold nuts. I can't tell you how many bluffs I've gotten away with because I realized I was playing with a boy deluded in this manner. However (don't hate me for this however), many of us are really behind the curve and it felt to me like many playing with me at the Rio were in just that state. They over-bet their good hands, under-bet their bad ones, made absolutely insane calls and were sucking out right and left. I almost felt like I was playing an online freeroll. You just couldn't play real poker with these girls.
Perhaps that's why most of the women pros don't go near this event. God bless Mimi and Victoria for making the money in this event. I sure couldn't figure out how to do it. I lost half, then all my chips to the same woman. In both hands, she had no business being in. I got up, having survived two and a half hours and thought, "That was a great deal of entertainment for $5.50, but I sure wouldn't play in it for much more than that." Mostly I was disappointed because I knew the HP folks were really rooting for me, and I was unable to live up to their hopes. Oh well. After shaking it off, I went and cashed in a couple sit'n'go's and felt better about the whole thing.
There is a concept I was taught in film school that applies a hundred-fold in poker. NATO - Not Attached To Outcome. My ultimate goal is to only play poker in a NATO state. If I can sit down, make good decisions and be happy with that, no matter what cards fall, not only will I be a better player, but one with the right emotional state to play the game. The highs and lows of this game get to everyone and cold cards and bad beats come to all of us. Is it the hardest way to make an easy living? I'd say so. If we could all stay NATO, the only thing that would upset us would be the mistakes we make. I'm ok with that. I want to get upset so I hopefully learn and won't repeat. I don't mean crazy upset, but just enough so that I remember not to do the same stupid thing the next time.
Feeling very NATO about the Ladies Event, it was time the next morning to climb back onto that WSOP horse and play in the $1000 No Limit Hold 'Em - Event #17, which I will get to shortly. However, I can hear my cousin coming down the stairs. Off to be tour guide for LA Land.
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