After finding EVERY $5-10 ring game and every $5-10 shorthanded table full, I was forced to find a $3-6 game. Party showed almost 22,000 Players logged on (I’m guessing this includes fake money players, which I think are mostly bots), and even the $3-6 tables were full. I finally sat at a $3-6 table with 3 players, and figured this was the only game I’d get. The players were hyper aggressive, frequently capping on the flop or turn. I figured this would be some easy money…
1 hour later, I was down $200. Fortunately, Party’s hand history emailer does not seem to be working, so I don’t have to see the carnage. I didn’t play well, but I didn’t play poorly either. I lost a couple big pots when my top pair was beaten by someone catching their 2nd pair on the river, and I just wasn’t catching cards. After quickly dropping $100, I switched to a nearly identical 4 player $3-6 table.
These tables were money… 3 of the 4 players frequently going to the river… everything you could ask for. I just wasn’t catching, and making too many bad calls with 2nd pair.
In brighter news, I discovered Felicia Lee’s Yahoo Journal (note: I had to change my link section title to Blog Brothers AND SISTER!), and read some great journal entries. Check out “The Bellagio Experiment” and “The Death of a Poker Player,” some really cool stuff going on. Felicia made me realize how much I missed playing live, as she plays exclusively in the good old B&Ms in Las Vegas. Most of my fellow Bloggers write exclusively about online play, and I missed getting sucked out on by runner-runner flushes at Hollywood Park.
I also heard from Chris Halverson, whose non-poker-only blog offers some interesting thoughts on Stanley Kubrick, blogger syndication, and even NASCAR. I’m not a NASCAR fan, but Chris knows his whiskey as well as Java, so he’s good in my book…
Playing 2 tables is great, and helps us get to the long run faster, but we are missing out on one of the biggest aspects of the game– the eye to eye combat involved in reading people. The rake at HP is deadly, but maybe it’s time I went back to face the fish. Or maybe I’m just steaming after a bad night.
That 1 hour session beat me up pretty good, and I feel like I’m at a loss for words. Hopefully I can sleep it off and come back with a good session tomorrow night. I almost found myself at the $15-30 tables trying to recoup my losses, but was able to resist. I just don’t have the bankroll to play here, but there is always the temptation of trying to recoup losses at higher stakes. I know this is a trait of “problem gamblers,” but it’s also known as the Martingale betting progression, which given an unlimited bankroll, cannot fail. Unfortunately my bankroll is not quite unlimited.
Off topic: the lines on the NFL games are awful this week– I don’t think there is a spread of less than 7. I didn’t see any game I liked, so I ended up putting $5 on every game. So at best I stand to win $65, but at least I’ve got something riding…
I started running in the mornings before work, which hopefully will sharpen up my mind a little bit. Besides the times when I’ve been injured, this is the longest period (3 months) in my life when I haven’t done any cardio. My energy level is definitely down as a result of my inactivity, but since I’m retired, there’s no real motivation to run. But I think working out really keeps my mind on edge, and hopefully that will help me stay focused at the poker table.
Thanks for reading, hopefully everyone else fared better than me tonight… I don’t mind losing the money, I just hate to lose!