My Poker Life Rut My Own Self Ruin My Cure & Prevention

Thursday, August 24, 2017

My Poker Life Rut My Own Self Ruin My Cure & Prevention

As I sit on my bed, laptop charged ready to partner with me as my nightly soul mate I take a good hard look around and I see something that has been an oversight yet a consistent for many years of my life. It is my poker life rut and it is not without fault of my own, it is completely preventable yet causes such ruin. Maybe I am different to most poker players or traveling reporters and other moms or maybe all of you can empathize with the overwhelming work load and feelings of laziness when I, in reality, are probably completely normal. Either way, being in a rut and self ruining isn’t cool and when it comes to this hot mess, it runs deep – it runs as far as my poor filing of pictures and documents on my computer systems to the blanket that still hangs on the line two weeks after I washed it.

Life itself can become a rut, a repetitive, tireless rut. You can travel, love, laugh and enjoy it but at the end of the day you are you and your habitual living ways usually remain the same. Many get up and brew coffee as they open their smart phones to read their feeds and news, they follow this by working from home remotely on projects assigned to them or head to an office, or casino, when the time suits, all of course after they smartly rinse their coffee cup and place it neatly on the sink. Life in the poker industry as a female, a mom, a daughter, wife and at times a girlfriend causes a different kind of rut. It causes an unorganized, chaotic, stressful rut that is like a black hole that one cannot escape. It is much like having habitual poor poker habits that you can’t seem to cease, it’s a nightmare and though, as mentioned, preventable. Sometimes a prevention needs a cure first. Most days I truly look around and listen and I feel like a walking, talking sitcom. A profession change isn’t out of the question to be honest, a profession change to an actress in an real life sitcom.

I was always taught that a clean work-space is what is needed for optimum success. So is a clear mind. The same applies to poker both online and live and to a working mother. As I sit surrounded by my suitcases that haven’t been unpacked from my last trip away (I returned over a month ago), my bathroom covered in makeup containers and a washing pile the size of mount Everest I wonder how there is any success in my life at all. I have a walk-in wardrobe but appear to use the walk on wardrobe more for clothing storage lately (the floor). I suppose you could say that my rut has peaked to ruin. My rut is large at the moment and mine doesn’t include the morning coffee and feed read, its more along the lines of catch up really quickly on emails as I open my eyes before peeing, diving back into bed and plummeting away on my laptop keyboard. Meanwhile my social and family world collapses around me, it becomes ruin. The domino effect is of course an impact on poker and writing and again, I am diving back into bed and typing on my keyboard doing the wash, rinse and repeat cycle – the rut.

So, my cure is to step away from poker, writing and anything else that doesn’t resemble a mom, daughter, girlfriend and self-loving confident woman for two days and cure this ruin before putting into place preventative steps so this rut doesn’t happen again. The cure is of course to unclutter and clean my work-space, my mind and my soul. I’m basically taking the same approach as over calling pre-flop, I am ending it and getting tighter with my ways, starting with the basics. Of course, stepping away from your game like I am is a tough thing to do, as when you return you are always playing catch-up! Catch-up emails, writing, filing, conferences, will I then be trying to cure my homely rut again? No, I am not as I am taking a full scale project management plan on board to deal with this.

Multi-tasking at its finest is going to be my best friend, as are the beautiful electronics and appliances I own! Automated machines are going to be turned on first and after this I will go for the throat! I will be doing my homely duties (including unpacking my suitcases) I will start with the most likely thing to put me straight back into this situation again in the coming month – the suitcases and washing! After this, a little re-organization of my makeup and wardrobe (good bye floordrobe) and I am on my way to Cure! Lets not forget the filing of docos and pics, I will be cleaning them up during breaks. Add to all of this the brilliance of using your own body weight for workouts and I will have my fitness also covered for the day, though I suspect that it will be more of a cardio and endurance workout instead of muscle & core strengthening.

So then there is the prevention, so I don’t find myself in this ruin and rut ever again! A good prevention starts with an instant un-pack. It doesn’t matter how tired I am on return from my next trip I am unpacking and putting my washing straight into the machine. I will put away my shopping and hand over the gifts I have purchased my family and fold my clothes and put my makeup away as I talk about my adventure. Also, each night following my cure I will be pushing buttons on the automated appliances and setting them to start at the time I wake each morning. Let me call them my “working alarm clocks”. Yes, I have gotten to the stage where I feel I am back in a military environment. ORDER and ROUTINE MA’AM! At the moment, strict order and routine appears necessary. This is a much better “rut” to be in, in my opinion. The routine rut means a clear work-space, mind and soul and – we all know what that leads to: success on and off the table.

A final note that will only apply to the single parents out there:

I will also be working my vocals and using my thong (flip flop footwear, not my underwear) to drive my children to the same objectives and goals. I didn’t have kids to clean up after them or be their slave and I certainly didn’t have sons so I could mow the lawn as they spectate. To escape the bedlam, to rid the rut, to blast away the ruin and strive forward to my goals, I am going to have to be one mean arse mother. To my kids who may read this, may god be with you!