Wah wah wah

Sorry, no post yesterday. Yeah, I know how you look forward to my ramblings during the week and I apologize. Actually, I was giving you a short break from my whining so I am back with a vengeance today. I am running bad. Real bad.

I worked from home yesterday which resulted in dueling laptops. I had an early conference call with our development team in China and rather than get up at the ass crack of dawn, I decided to do all of my morning calls from home and do the rest of what I needed to at home. I had to leave a little early anyway because my son had his first playoff game last night.

The calls with China can be exhausting because the language barrier alone makes it difficult to communicate over the phone. Couple that with some poor telecommunications systems and you are dead in the water. Luckily, I wasn’t a main participant in the calls so…fire up the home laptop and get in some poker.

I was determined to prove to myself that I didn’t suck. I have been bleeding bankroll over the last couple days trying to work on my cash games. I think my probably has been that I am playing at a level I should be because I am trying to clear bonuses on Stars and Pokerroom. Not smart at all. I know that my cash game is not too strong but I am taking the shot anyway. It hasn’t worked out so well. That coupled with my WWdN “performance” on Tuesday, I was hoping to have a good day at the tables while working.

Here is my quick synopsis of my WWdN. Don’t play the first 10 hands or so other than donate the blinds. Limp in with pocket 5s with 4 others. Flop a set and slow play it. On the river put out a feeler bet only to be raised big by one of the Altanta crew, 23skidoo. Without even paying attention to the board, push (always a +EV play to only pay attention to your own cards!) Get called by 23skidoo who was given the opportunity to catch runner runner straight because I am a dumbass. Game over. Out second. Well played, sir.

Ok, so after that wonderful showing, I did play some cash with waffles and jjok. I flopped a straight and took some cash off of waffles when he insisted on trying to bluff me off a hand. He thought I got greedy on the end, but I didn’t think so. I was 99% sure I had him. He posted the hand so check out his post from Tuesday night. Anyway, I gave most of it back and then joined a SNG with waffles and Jordan and donked out of that one too.

So back to yesterday. My wife had left the house to take all the kids to swimming lessons and my conference call had gotten underway. I decided that I would take a shot at a $20 180 SNG. I had some success on Monday night with one so I thought I would give it a go. I didn’t know what type of players would be playing during the day but jumped in anyway.

I was cruising along, down to about 70 left and right after the first break when my tourney ended. I had A9o in late position and bumped the blinds as it was folded to me. The BB calls. The flop comes down 9 high rainbow. My stack was a little lower than the average, not a short stack really, but just under. The blinds were getting up there and the pot was pretty good size. I didn’t want to see another card. I figured I had to be ahead and I pushed. He insta called me with…K6o. He didn’t even have a pair. He had me covered but not by a lot. All I needed to do was avoid him getting his 3 outer with 2 cards to go. Well, I wouldn’t be whining about this if I had won right? It was quick and painful when the K hit on the turn to put me out around 70th.

I think that put me on tilt. I proceeded to donk off pieces of the bankroll in various spots. A little cash at Stars, a little cash at Poker room. Even a little cash at Doyle’s room, which had been my savior lately. Finally, feeling very defeated, I closed up the home laptop for the day to get some actual work done in the afternoon.

We went to my son’s playoff game which they proceeded to whoops some ass in. The won by the slaughter rule as they scored their 15th run in the bottom of the 5th to make it 15-0. We are the 4th seed so we play the 1st seed Saturday morning for the chance to move on. If they win, it will be Sunday morning for the Eastern Division championship and the chance to play the final on Tuesday night of next week.

I got home and watched a little of the Sox game and played some more cash at Pokeroom. I went from NL to limit and went back and forth for a while. I signed up for the Mookie and kept playing the cash game at PR until my table opened on Stars. I was determined to play it smart. I played it just the opposite.

Again, about 10 hands in (if that) I get AQd in MP and raise it up 5xBB. The only person to call is Doubleas. Uh, oh, not a good thing. That should have put me on warning and made a little more cautious right there. Instead, I think the true donkey in me subconsciously decided I wouldn’t get outplayed after flop, even though I knew I was up against a player better than me.

The flop came down A high and I bet the pot. He called. The turn seems a blank so I bet it out hard again and he smooth called again. Ok, now at this point, I should be really concerned. So many possibilities out there. Two pair, a set. I can’t remember for sure about flush and straight possibilities but they probably existed too. Regardless, when the river was also a blank, I pushed. (?). He instacalled me and showed that I was behind and dominated the entire hand. IGHN in last freakin place in the Mookie.

What do you think about this hand? I know I played it bad because I fell in love with my TPokK, and got what I deserved. Would you have played it the same way as doubleas? Would you have confidently called my river bet of 800 or so after flat calling the flop and turn bets? My reputation of a donkey must preceed me there because although I played it poorly, I may have put someone else on a better hand than TP only. I am not knocking his play, who the hell am I, but I might have raised at some point along the way to see how committed I was to the hand. I probably would have layed it down too so maybe that is why he did what he did,. Anyway, your comments on that one are appreciated. Don’t get me wrong, I played this one like an idiot and was obviously not thinking through it properly.

So, here it is 10:10pm EST and I should shut down the laptop and watch some TV or even just go to bed. Do I do that? Not no, but hell no! Instead, I fire up 2 single table $10 SNGs to try and get back on track. I did manage to win one. Nothing memorable that I can think of. It was nice to get a little cash back. In the second one though, more of my running bad whining material was dropped in my lap.

There are about 7 of us left when I get dealt AA. I raise it up 4xBB and get 2 callers. The blinds are pretty small here so I with 4xBB I knew I would still get some action. The flop came down all low rags, 8 high. I bet out about ¾ of the pot and one of the callers reraised me a few hundred. Rather than play along, I push. I have him covered and hope to end it right here anyway. He calls me with pocket 9s. Not a terrible call with his overpair but I have him dead to 2 outs. I watch in horror as he gets his 2 outer on the river with a 9 and the table chatter starts. I just kept my fingers still. I didn’t want to even bother. I have 200 or so left. Table scraps but when I get big slick in the very next hand, I push the scraps in and get 3 callers. Since they still had chips, the cards didn’t get turned over so when the flop came AA3, I thought I could get back into this. That was, of course, until I saw the 2 and the 4 come runner runner and knew when the cards flipped, I would be out. Sure enough one of the callers had pocket 5s and with them checking me down (I am sure the Aces scared everyone), I was out and severely pissed off.

Shut it down now? Hell no, fire up 2 more. The profit I got in the win made it an easy decision. Plus, I felt like I played them both well so why not. I lost both. I suck. I played like a donkey in one and got sucked out again on the other. I hate poker.

Ok, just send me your screennames and the dollars will flow. That is if I still have any left after the bloodletting.

One last item of note. I have been reading about Klopzi’s successful casino bonus whoring. I wasn’t too interested until I saw the doubleuwhy also had tried the Scurvydog mthod and had success. With my bankroll shrinking like Castanza while swimming, and after reading up on Scurvy’s method, I am going tog give it a shot. For nothing more than a bankroll padding. I downloaded Starluck Casino last night and started up the whoring. I was up about $20 at one point but then came back to even and called it a night. I probably have a couple hundred hands of blackjack in at the minimum bet, but of course I didn’t track it very well. Anyway, I will keep updating that venture over the next few weeks.

Good luck and have a great day.