State of the Union

I LOVE poker and I hate poker. Right now it is on my good side. It is like a relationship where one day your woman is smacking you with a frying pan and the next day she is giving you the best oral of your life with one of her cute girlfriends helping out.

I did lose it a little last night. I don’t know what happened. I think sometimes I can shrug off the bad beats. However, when they happen right in a row, like last night it gets hard. Here is the situation:

I am up about $30. I am playing two tables and have high pockets. Kings I think. On both tables. So I bet two buck because the fish normally will fold to these “large” bets. I guess I got the special-ed ones today. I get called on both tables. Ok. Fine.

The first table progresses with the flop being 996. I am somewhat concerned someone may have called me with a nine, but whatever, I bet out the pot of four bucks. It is HU between me and a fish with a lot of chips. The turn is a seven. Now I am concerned someone might have a straight so I decide to end it. I bet out the pot again at eight bucks. Now follow along with me children. I have put fourteen bucks into a pot on a 25/NL table and been cold called all the way. Does he have the nine? No. The river is a five. Now I know I am in trouble. He checks and I check behind him. Yup. J8o. Hits his f-ing straight on the river. Ok. So I am a little ticked but under control. Just a quick “Nice catch fish” and were off.

Back to table two. You remember. Another set of big pockets. The flop is a couple of diamonds. So again I decide to bet out the pot. I get called. The turn is a third diamond. My opponent now comes alive and starts betting. I call down. I know. Stupid. Sometimes I want to see though. Yup. Moron calls six bucks with Q4 diamonds and catches his hand on the turn. HELLO?!?!?! ANYONE HOME?!?! What fucking hold em book did you get that from? What? You can not read because every time you try your redneck teeth fall out of your head? In case I am no good at expressing myself I was EXTREMELY angry at this point. I forget what I said but it could not have been too nice. I am now down to break even for the night. What started as a good night has turned to mediocre crap.

So now I am angry as hell. I get pocket K’s again. Hey, I was catching good starting hands. I say to myself, if you f-ing fish wanna play then let’s play, and I push five bucks into the pot. Now the fish that I got sucked out on does not call. However I get TWO callers. TWO CALLERS! I mean what the hell? Do you all have AK or pockets? Do you really want to suck out on me so bad that you will call any size pre-flop bet I make? So the flop is a semi-scary, semi-coordinated, non-ace, alotta low card, flop. I figure I am good for the moment. I am done fucking around too. So I push. Nobody calls. I take the pot.

At least this calms me down for the moment. Although I still want to put a hurting on a fish. Rip his little fishy fins off and dunk his head in the air until he turns (What color do fish turn when they forget how to breathe?) blue, and then let him in the water for a couple seconds to catch his breath, before I fry him up in a pan for dinner.

I never get the chance on my second table. So I fold that break even. My second table starts to look up again though. I end up hitting a straight on the river. I bet a buck. The fishy raises me to three. Now I have the nut straight. You did not make me pay for my draw. I am going to re-raise you to six. Ok. The fish loses his mind and goes all crazy ass on me and pushes all in. I am expecting to split the pot and pay a huge rake. Bastard fish. However all he had was a miserable two pair. Ok. Suckah! I took his whole stack. All twenty five of it. Sweet. A drunk fishy came on a little later too. He mostly donated to others but I got a few bucks from him. Ended the night a little over doubled up.

The state of the stack is good. The SNGs cooled off last night, losing two in a row, but the cash game has been hot. The bankroll has eked up to 467+ and is fast approaching: 500! I will probably be switching to the 50/NL tables soon. See how they run. I think I will play one a night. If I seem to be losing then I will go down to 25/NL, if I go on a good run, I will stay and start two tabling the 50/NL when I get a few hundred more. I am going to wait until 2K or so to start playing the 100/NL. No rush. It is not that I think the talent is any better, I just think that with variance, I would like a big chunk of padding. Once I reach 1200 I will try limit again. Not that I want to play 2/4 limit all that much, but I REALLY want to play 5/10 6-MAX limit again. It destroyed me once. I want some revenge. I need the practice of 2/4 and 3/6 in order to attempt it though. Either that or I can stay with NL. I find it very exciting. However risking your entire buy in on a single decision is a little risky. Especially when your decision making process is iffy like mine. So keep reading. Someday I may be Sir 3K and more again. Until then I am grinding with the guppies.