We’re coming up on the first Father’s Day since my dad died. I’ve never been one for maudlin introspection, and I won’t start now. My wife and I were talking about it over lunch today. She hates the “Hallmark Holidays”: Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Secretaries’ Day, Boss’s Day, all that crap. Mind you, she still expects to get shit on Mother’s Day, but ever since her mom died, her enthusiasm has steadily declined.

I suppose we’re all supposed to honor our fathers on Sunday. Well, I’ll probably do it in my own way, playing in the WCOOP Blogger Tournament which was thoughtlessly put on Father’s Day, no doubt by some single guy whose dad died a long time ago. But hey, my dad is the one who taught me poker (at least the hands, if not the strategy). So, what better what to commemorate him?

My son’s baseball team is in the District TOC beginning tomorrow. The top two teams in four regions are bracketed in a single elimination tournament with games Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday (if we make it that far). I understand that there was some infighting at the board meeting about having the games on Father’s Day before they decided against it. After all, half the teams are gonna lose. No need to send half the fathers home pissed off…

My poker play continues to be laughably mediocre. I keep reading through the dozens of poker blogs, and many of them are focused on being good players, rather than being successful players. Frankly, I’m successful without being good, partially due to game selection, partially due to a low setting on my “success” meter, partially because I’m not fixated on my play – I’m focused on the winning. Oooh, I might have missed a chance to pull off a “stop and go”, but I won the pot anyway. Oooh, I might have missed a chance to show down a cool bluff, but I saved my chips. I am a successful player. I’m profitable.

Now, I’m probably successful because I’m playing within the poker equivalent of the Special Olympics, but I have no such moral compunction about taking money from the less intelligent when it’s offered so readily. Why why why do so many poker bloggers insist on trying to beat the tougher games? Is it machismo? Is it ego? Is it stupidity? I’m sure many players that are treading water at $10/20 or even $5/10 could absolutely KILL the $1/2 tables or the $25NL tables, but they keep pounding away, never quite reaching the brass ring. Y’know, at some point, you need to accept your limitations, stay where you can WIN, and not follow the PeterPokerPrinciple:

Players at an online poker site will advance to their highest level of competence and then move up in limits and remain at a level at which they are incompetent until they lose their bankroll.