Following Ebbo's Wisdom

It’s a new week, and I’m about to go and sign up for the gym. Hopefully I can make it there 3 times a week, either at lunchtimes or first thing in the morning. Besides being worried about my general lack of fitness, I’ve found myself becoming very lethargic when I am playing poker recently and trying to force action, particularly in cash games.

The snooker entertainer Peter Ebdon, swam and ran daily, which allowed him to have legendary long term concentration at the table. In one match in 2005 he spent 8 minutes compiling a break of 12, and 3 minutes over one shot. I don’t think Ronnie O’Sullivan has ever recovered from this mental torture. Hopefully, a few visits to the gym will improve my concentration levels at the tables, and maybe solve the mental fatigue issue I’ve been experiencing in multi day tournaments.

I got the online cash challenge underway this weekend. I took my original bankroll from 1k USD upto 1,150 in an hour or so. Nothing spectacular, although it would have been a better start if I had not flopped a set of Queens up against a set of Aces in a blinds battle, which cost a couple of hundred dollars. What are the odds on that eh? SB has pocket aces, BB has pocket queens and both flop a set…hmmmmmm. You can find me on the pokerstars 1/2 tables at the moment under my username BlueberryMix - I know this is probably too high a level for the 1k USD buy in, but I started lower and just couldn’t get motivated. If the challenge bankroll goes, it goes.

This week I’ll be playing the new Dealer’s Choice cash game at the Loose Cannon which should be fun, as well as a chance to start playing some different games aside from Holdem and Omaha. It will also be the league, as usual, on Thursday night.

Speaking on Peter Ebdon, one of my favourite sporting interviews occurred after one of his victories, in the early rounds of the UK championship in 2006.

Interviewer: “Peter, now you are living in Dubai, I hear you practice with Ding Junhui regularly”

Ebdon: “Yes - Ding is such a great player. We get on really well - I’d go as far to say that he’s my best friend”

Interviewer: “So…does Ding speak English now”

Ebdon: “No he doesn’t”

Interviewer: “Do you speak Chinese?”

Ebdon: “Um…no…no I don’t” :)