Monday, August 23, 2004

La la la...

So yeah. Not the best poker weekend.

I'm not going to go into the gory details, but the ol' bankroll took a major hit this weekend. Some grinding at the .50/1 tables helped a bit, but I'm still a little wiped out.

Everyone hits stretches of bad cards and bad beats, just like everyone hits stretches of sweet cards and sweet beats. I know this. But it doesn't help any when I'm frustrated, especially when the cards compound it.

Assorted lowlights of the last three or four days:

1) Playing in a $30 MTT, was 25th out of 40 (top 30 spots paid). Dealt AA in the BB. Blinds were $200/400 and I had about T4000. Call from MP, button raises to 800. I push all-in, MP folds, button calls (he's got me covered, had about T4500).

(Yes, I probably could have limped into the money but I felt like it was time to take a shot at winning one of these things.)

I flip over AA, button turns over 6 9 offsuit (the 9 is a spade). Flop is A 10 4, two spades (Yes, you can see where this is going). Runner-runner spades on the turn and river give him the flush to beat my set, since neither of my aces are spades.

I can almost deal with the spade flush, if he'd been playing a pair. If he had 99 and happened to hit the four spades on the board to give him the flush, well, okay, that still pissed me off, but at least he had a hand. But how the hell can you call, basically going all-in, with 6 9 offsuit? And then get bailed out like that?

2) Quad tens getting cracked in an Omaha tourny, causing me to bubble out at 27th, when the top 25 spots paid. Yes, I know, it's Omaha. Straight flushes happen. Quads don't always hold up. But I was 8th going into the hand, and would have been the chip leader if I'd won. I could have easily limped into the money, but, umm, you sort of have to play quads. The slightly more frustrating thing is that the guy turned and rivered the straight flush, and was basically drawing dead the entire hand. (I flopped the quads.)

3) Flopped a full house in a $30 SNG, with 5 people left. Push all in, get two callers, lose to a guy holding 22 who catches a 2 on the turn and a 2 on the river for quads. Finish in 4th.

I'd balance it out with some highlights but there really weren't any. I'm still kicking though, albeit in the most boring of ways, grinding at the .50/1 tables. The sad thing is that over the last three months that's been my most profitable game. I just enjoy tournaments so much more, despite the fact that they been -EV for me. Meh.

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