Jinxed!

I think I really jinxed myself with that previous downer of a post. I'd had a couple of positive lunch sessions during the week, but then went to play last night and blew two racks. It took about 3 hours, and I won ONE pot the entire time. And I even had to bluff at it and almost got called. It was pretty sad... I threw away at least a dozen winners - if I mucked pre-flop or after missing the flop, it would come runner-runner for what would have been the win. But if I stayed in for the draw, of course it never came. And the few occassions I'd catch top pair, someone would eventually catch a bigger one.

Who knew the Force would affect my cards that way???

So seeing as how I got a vast number of 92's and 83's, I thought maybe that was a sign for me to hit the BlackJack table.

Nope.

Hit on a 12 and get to 19. Push. Dealer shows 10 so I hit my 16. Makes it to 20, alright! Dealer goes 10+2+2+A+6 for the 5-card 21. Get dealt the nine-dewey... DOUBLE DOWN! Make it to 18 and push. Finally get dealt two face cards. Dealer blackjack. Seriously, this must be rigged.

Speaking of rigged games - still playing the occasional quarter game on PokerChamps. It's a rough transition, coming from a 3/6 game where I can walk away with $100, and then playing online and trying to be excited over doubling up... a whole $10! But I've been good at resisting the temptation of taking it all and jumping up to the dollar limits I'm "familiar" with.

Still hovering just below the initial $100 that was deposited. It was almost bust at one point, but a few 3rd place finishes in $3 and $5 tourneys helped kicked it back up. I can't seem to break that 3rd place barrier, and I haven't had a chance to play the LA Classic qualifiers... only one more week before the final qualifier - I better get on it!

I can't fairly rate PokerChamps, as I haven't played for ca$h on any other sites - but from what I gather reading about others' bonus whoring adventures, PokerChamps are the biggest bonus chumps. They release the bonus amount in 10% increments once a week. Since I went for the full $100 - I have to be in a ton of raked hands just to barely reach the $10 release threshold, and I've got $80 left to clear... only 2 more months of this! And while they have a rake-rebate structure, it's not much to write home about, at least playing at just the quarter limits.

On the plus side, their support has been outstanding. I was in a hand and had already put in about $1.50 into a pot that was at $5 after the flop. The Turn gave me the Ace-high straight - someone bet, and I was waiting for my RAISE button to show up, but it never did. Turned out their server crashed. A minute later, it came back up, but the hand was gone and so was my money!

I emailed Support and said I expected to at least get back the money I put into the pot (someone could have caught a flush on the River!). Within an hour, they had reviewed the hand and credited my account the full $5! Woot! Should I reply and I tell them to throw in a few more bucks because of the implied odds? :)

Well, my grandma will be in town over the next couple of days. She'll want to spend the day with the kids, and then the nights in front of the slot machines, so we'll be spending time at the Muckleshoot again this weekend. I think I'll just stick to throwing dice and stay clear of the Poker room... with the way things are going right now, it'd be just as much of a crapshoot!