Monday, April 04, 2005

Please Don't Feed The Monkey

Its been a bad two weeks for me. Many stacks lost. Stupid "tricky" plays backfiring horribly. Not getting away from 2nd best hands. Grinding away at tourneys only to get hit with the ass end of variance.

4th out 94 BoDog WPT Qualifier (Top 3 get a seat): AQ vs. A6 rivered a 6, I get $0

4th out 18 Stars $10+$1 SnG: AQ vs A7 rivered a 7, I get $18 after being the chip leader most of the time

13th out of 157 Stars $20+$2 Limit O8: AAK6 vs 2569: He calls two bets cold and outflops me, I couldn't stop myself, I get $36.78 for 3 hours of play

45th out of 108 WPBT $20+$2 NLHE: AK vs AT: Take a guess at the turn card, I get $0

17th out of 120 $10+ $1 Empire $1,000 NLHE: 88 vs. A8, (listen for sounds of a sailing monitor...), I get $12 for 3 hours of play thanks to hand-for-hand starting 10 from the money, and my Leeann Chin's seasame chicken was getting cold.

Whine, whine, whine. At this point its becoming commonplace for me to assume that nasty 2 outer is going to hit. I've lost at least 5 stacks or 6-7BBs in the last two week due to a mix of calling when I know I'm beat or the villian hitting his 2-3 outer. I can't remember the last time I hit a hand and got paid off. Its getting tougher and tougher not to tilt away what I've built up over the past year. I guess that's why playing poker over the long-term is not for everybody. Dealing with variance is hard. So how does one deal with running bad at the tables? Walking away was great suggestion from a certain beer swilling dwarf (sorry for all the beat stories Iggy, I promise more shine less whine next time I make rhyme, sound fine?).

Yes, walking away was good unless you were going to the casino the next day. Bowling tourney at Black Bear Casino (actually the bowling alley is in town then everyone goes the casino afterwards). They decided the lanes were "too easy" last year so this year they decided to slick up the alleys and make them faster then the greens at Augusta. This doesn't mean shit to someone who throws a straight ball, but when the oil literally splashes while trying to throw a hook? I think I would have fared better bowling on ice.

After the dismal failure of a Pete Weber impersonation, I tried playing blackjack for the first time in a while. I've done fairly well with computer blackjack so what's the difference? The difference is the dealer taking my $100 in 7 hands. Hell, the beer I ordered didn't even get to the table before I was done. I think I had one hand over 18 which got smacked by a 6 card 21. Like I said, I'm running bad at the moment. As for poker I hit up the $3-$6 table at Black Bear and came out -3BBs. I played weak-tight for some reason for the first two hours then opened up a bit and found my raises and bets getting a lot of respect. I won't go into the gory details of the two beats that left me in the minus because I'd like to write about other things then how flopped sets lose to runner-runner straights and such.

It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood yesterday so much of it was spent outside doing yard work after we got home from the casino. We can finally see underneath the 4 inch-thick pile of leaves. I'll take a picture of it tonight and you can decide if it looks like spring cleaning or the trash pile after a Bash At the Boathouse party.

I closed out the night after an IM from a beautiful, young poker player saying there was a HORSE tourney at Full Tilt (BONUS CODE: Drizz99). It was short but fun once again. I broke the cardinal rule of poker by trying to run off a calling station, leaving myself out of tourney 27th out of 45. I played like a guy on tilt when I called off those chips. I think I'm going to take the next few days off and really delve into the Pokertracker guide and try to find where I'm calling off my chips in situations that I CAN control rather then mope about the lucky cards that I can't control.

Good luck and root for UNC tonight (I'm actually in the running to win two different brackets since no one else picked them to win!!!!). Go Tar Heels!!

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