Week from Hell

This past week has just been ridiculous. Our warehouse manager was on vacation all last week, and I'm the default backup for him. My department coworker is still out on medical leave... I'm pretty sure she's not coming back, but she's making sure to take all of her vacation and sick pay. I don't blame her, I'd do the same; but in the meantime, the company isn't going to hire a replacement until they can stop paying her. All of which left me handling the jobs of 3 people all week. At least my overtime will be juicy.

Obviously, I've been a bit behind on my blog-reading and more so on posting. Last time I was here, I was on a roll with the sports betting. My advisory coworker picked 5 for 5 on Wednesday, bringing the account up to almost $400. So I doubled the bets on Thursday, and he bombed and went 1-5. He tries to claim he was 2 for 5, but one of the teams didn't cover the spread, so it's still a loss in my book. So I took the $150 left from the one win and put it on some of the favorites and 20-1 longshots in the Derby. Thanks for nothing, Giacomo. The last $50 went back on the Sonics first game against the Spurs... it would have paid 4-to-1 if they had won. Obviously they didn't, and so my quest for a $1000 came to an abrupt end.

Poker was an uncontrollable beast as well. FPP WSOP Satellite on Stars, 2nd hand dealt is QQ that runs into KK. In live tourney and ring games, everytime I hit a great flop, I got outdrawn on the Turn or River. QJs flops the Q and two more spades, and I turn a straight draw - another Spade comes and I'm beat by the K high flush. AJ with a J-high board. Oh yea, J2 hits his kicker.
I laid off the cards for a few days... easy to do with the extra work load at the office as well as from the online classes I've started. Friday the 13th was payday, so I decided to see if a bad luck day would be good for me. It was. Started with $50 after work... flopped some straights, rivered some flushes, and left an hour later with an extra $100! Came back with the wife after dinner, and the luck continued to hold up.

I should have quit when the clock struck midnight. I was up another $80 at the time, and as soon as Friday the 13th was gone, so was my good run. Seriously, I remember looking at the time... 12:30 am... and never winning another pot after that. I had a few nasty beats in a row, and that was that. The first one wasn't actually all that bad... I flopped Broadway with AT. Tons of action on the flop and turn, but I had to slow it down when a 2nd King hit the River. Full house anyone? Nope... Quad Kings! The only thing that made it okay was that it was my own wife that had the Kings. My chips were staying in the family, and she got a $60 Monte Carlo bonus as well.

But after that... I turned a 9-high straight during a kill pot (6/12). Some idiot playing 25o Rivered a boat. And no, it wasn't his Kill blind, nor his Small or Big. Two bets on the turn and 3 on the River... that pot cost me over $70. Flopped trip Dueces with Q2 in the BB. Outkicked by K2 in the Small. My all-in was with A5 and I flopped 2-pair. It was a family pot pre-flop and post-flop, so I was looking at getting back at least $60; until someone rivered a straight.

Fortunately, the wife held her own for the next hour or so as I mulled around the casino in despair. Tangent: everytime I busted out this week, I'd hang around to watch some table games, and I witnessed a $500 bonus winner at Paigow, a $600 4-card poker straight flush, and a 20-to-1 payout on quads at the Caribbean Draw poker... he had $50 out for a $1000 return. All part of some cruel joke being played on me, I'm sure!

Anyways, I came back from watching another table game winner to see my wife cutting off two stack of chips to cold-call a raise. The board was 258 with two hearts. I immediately knew she was on the flush draw. It got capped with 5 people involved including her. Turn was a black Jack. Capped again with 4 people in. The guy I was standing behind flashed his cards to his neighbors... his pocket Jacks hit their set. King of hearts on the River and lots of moaning and groaning. No one bet, and wifey showed her Q4h. No one had the Ace, and she did a little "gimme gimme" motion towards the HUGE pot. One guy who was in to the end showed his 25 flopped two-pair. There was a lot of loud, good-natured finger pointing, "How could you cap preflop with that???" to both the 25 and Q4. Someone noticed me standing there and said, "It's okay, she's just covering for him!"

It was over $200 in that pot, and after she finished stacking them up 6 hands later, I motioned for her to rack 'em up. With her Quad bonus, she had a profit of over $300. I figured I broke even for the day, as I had only used the money I won earlier in the day to play with.

Well, enough bitching for now. Have to get caught up on reading about other's winning play. That should help me get re-affirmed for the WPBT WSOP Qualifier tonight...