Distractions

The Wednesday night poker group listens to the most unpalatable music channel available during the game. Most of these guys missed the good music period that preceded and post-ceded their youth and we get stuck listening to the most insipid tripe created. This week though, some of the guys had put some action on the Navy-Pitt game and we watched that. I noticed myself watching the game on TV rather than the one at the table often even though I have no allegiance to either team nor any stake in the outcome. The question is, did I play more correctly by having a distraction or less so?

Watching the game gave me something to do when I wasn't involved in a hand. I know what I should be doing in such a situation but I have this table pretty well pegged without having to maintain hyper-focus. This available distraction may have made me play a little tighter. I played few hands but had a very nice night.


But

I may have folded some hands that were +EV as I had the excuse of the game to watch. Generally, I am a very tight player but a couple of the crew took particular notice of it that night. Even with the table being as loose as it is, I don't need to get to the point where the normally unobservant are noticing my constant folding. Most of our pots are cheap to get into. We might be playing a spread limit, 5-100 game but they allow "kill" calls that limit raises after three kills have been made. We played 9 handed most of the night and there were 6-9 players in every pot pre-flop. Limping in this game is probably a very small leak if it is a leak at all.