Falling From Grace

Wow... January started off so nicely. I had felt the power of the Poker Gods behind me... my hands were guided by them and I could do no wrong. But somehow, somewhere, somewhen, they turned their backs on me and now I am no more than a blind mouse, skittering around for scraps....

On Friday, I get to the Midway after work, and they have the 10/20 game going with half a dozen on the wait list. I watch for about 45 minutes, just salivating at the piles of red chips moving back and forth, and finally get my name called. I buy-in with $400 and get placed in the 1s just after the button, so I'm dealt in immediately... first hand is pocket Jacks, Hallelujah! Two limpers before me, and as much as I hate being aggressive on my very first hand at a table, I don't want to fuck around with this gift given to me, so I raise. The BB makes it 3-bets, one limper and myself call. Flop hits with a K and a Q. It costs me another two bets to see the turn, which just ends up completing the flush for the first limper.

My next hand is Presto, 55. It costs me another 3 SBs to see it to the Turn. I miss and have to let it go. What is going on here? All this temptation laid before me and absolutely no fruit to bear!

Not 10 minutes in and I'm down $80. I try not to think of it in terms of dollars and tell myself I've still got 3 full stacks of chips to do holy battle with. The only problem was that I could not get ANY cards to take with me on this crusade.

K3, J6, T2, 94, 83, and on and on... it got to the point where I was ready to play the next two s00ted cards I got, but the Gods didn't even have the decency to grant me that! Of course, they tease me when I muck T6 and TT6 flops. I flash the dealer my fifth or sixth 94o before I fold, and the flop comes 94x, making even the dealer jump in her seat.

Okay, this means things are turning around, right? I'm being smiled upon and I need to take advantage of it, right? Nope. I get a playable hand like KJ and hear distant laughter overhead as I get outkicked by AJ. I turn two-pair with JT, no straight or flushes possible, but the river pairs one of the blanks so that I lose to KK (which of course is the way it's meant to be, right?).

I'm down to $50... half a stack... and pretty much resolved to go all-in with QQ. Another guy is all-in for about $15... there's all sorts of callers and side-pots going on. The board is only J-high and the Hilton Sisters hold up to win the big side-pot bringing me back up to $200+... but I still can't get all the glory as the smaller all-in rivered a Flush and he takes the $75 main pot.

The same thing happens again a few hands later, when my AK holds up for a decent side pot, but a K6 hits two-pair and takes the main pot. What cruelty... I have this juicy carrot dangled in front of me, and am only getting to nibble on the tip.

At this point, somehow I've got my 4 stacks of reds back, and then some... I'm up a whopping $40! Whoever came up with the idea of using casino chips was a genius. The psychology behind it all is amazing... playing a 3/6 game, I'd be pretty happy with being up $40. Two full extra stacks of chips... I could easily rack up and leave. But when that $40 is represented by a paltry 8 chips, how can I be satisfied with that? I know there's more in store for me... I know my celestial destiny has yet to be fulfilled.

Honestly though, I was prepared to keep things in scale... I would have racked up with +2 stacks... hell, I only bought in with $400, and I would have been happy being able to just fill up a rack. But even trying to get one measly extra stack of chips is a near impossibility, at any level, when you've fallen from grace like I apparently have.

Near the end of the night, one guy sat down with just $200. He hit 4 monster hands within 2 orbits and was up to $600, and wisely left after the next round. How dare he be that lucky? Whose virgin daughter did he have to sacrifice to have the light shone upon him like that? Myself, on the other hand, stuck around and just got myself stuck for another $200 before the table finally broke at midnight. How ironically fitting that my final hand was JJ... no overcards on the board this time... but instead I run into AA. Sheesh.

I'll admit, it was a really good game. Pretty solid, consistent play with minimal river beats. I just wish I had been blessed with some cards...

Unfortunately this bad run got me playing scared during the WPT Satellite freeroll at Cascade on Saturday. There were only about 36 people... I knew I could handle that. I tried to tell myself it was a new day, new cards. But I forgot to say my prayers, and I continued getting the same crappy hands. I was too pussy to try to make any moves when I easily could have... I went ultra-tight, limped in once an orbit (if even that) and folded to any bet. I mucked A7o in LP when I could have seen the flop for cheap. Two Aces on the board and King-high wins the pot. I raised with pocket 7s, but was re-raised all-in by the chip leader and couldn't bring myself to call. Suffice it to say, I didn't last very long, and after getting blinded down a few more orbits, my T500 push with AK didn't scare anyone off.

Last night, the wife and I hung out at the Silver Dollar, as they were doing a Ford Truck giveaway, and you had to be present to win. We didn't win the truck (surprise!), and couldn't win at their 3/6 game either. It was odd, having the previous two days worth of Poker playing be at the 10/20 and tournament level, and then coming back down to a 3/6 must-move table and seeing hands like J3 and T6 take down pots. The Overlords of the Cards are a fickle lot.

The killing blow for me was having AK lose to 83 (they were s00ted of course!) with a board that went Kxx, 3, 3... and that wasn't even the worst part. The bad beat was the one I put on myself, when the very next hand was 95c UTG. I mucked it right away and just wanted to cool down. Flop is 678c. I would have flopped a fucking Straight Flush! But how could I bring myself to play a shit hand like that? I mean, I'd seen 95o win twice at that table when they hit their straight, but I'm a better Poker player than that, right? The Monte Carlo jackpot for a Straight Flush was almost $100. I would have played 97s or even 96s to see if I could get close to the Straight Flush... but 95 flopping the triple-belly-buster-inside-back-door-gut-shot-Straight-Flush completely? What are the fucking chances of that??? What a nasty sense of humor somebody has.

I busted out two hands after that and I can't even blame it on being on tilt. Pocket 7s flop a set and I'm all-in only to lose to a runner-runner straight. Is that a tilt play? No, that's a "getting goosed by the higher-ups" kind of play.

I made it over to PJ Pockets for their 1:30am tourney, but was tenth on the alternate list. They go through as many alternates as they can within the first two rounds... alternate #9 got a seat just before the 2nd round timer went off. Geezus, I'm not even playing at a table and I'm still getting smited (smote? smitten?)!

PJ's added a Tuesday night tourney to their calendar, so I pre-registered for that and hope to snap myself out of this funk and turn things around before midnight tonight.

Seriously , if I can't money in tonight's tourney, I'll have to make the rest of March a poker-free month. Focus on some other back-burner projects... catch up on blog-reading... and of course, work on my prayers to the Poker Gods so that maybe they open their arms and accept me in their warm embrace once again....