Mean Gene

The Slippery Slope

That's what I'm on right now, the descent into Poker Hades greased with my own blood and bad-beat sweat. Got home last night after volleyball (and wings and beer) and logged on to get some hand histories to feed into Poker Tracker. I made the mistake of logging on to play a few hands, and I lost $9 in the 45 minutes I played. When you only have $45 in your bankroll that's a serious hit.

Played 45 minutes and won 1 hand. I had A-7d and flopped the nut flush. Of course I got no action from this, pocketing a huge $2 profit. The rest of the night I just dribbled away blinds and small bets. Can't complain about my cards--had AKs, pocket queens, jacks (twice) and eights. And hit nothing on the flop, and I mean nothing. That was my saving grace, I got out early with all these hands, except for the ladies. Preflop the betting was capped, with this other guy re-raising me. I certainly couldn't throw away queens, and maybe he had jacks or another pair or a suited ace with a big kicker? A king fell on the flop and the betting was checked around, so I put him on that suited ace. There was an 8 on the turn, pairing an 8 on the flop, and I called a bet with my queens, tho I hate seeing two cards of the same rank on the board. Then a 9 on the river, pairing the NINE that came on the board. So anyone with a King, a nine, an eight...I know when I'm skunked. I got out, and had the original re-raiser turn over pocket kings. So much for my Hellmuthian reading abilities.

My games have developed a predictable pattern lately. Either I win a few pots at the start and have a big night, or I slowly and inexhorably drip chips until I'm looking at a $10 loss. I think I've posted losses 4 of the last 5 times I played. I didn't play poorly last night. Played tight, even saved myself about $5 throwing away some hands where I thought I was second-best. Not thought-pretty much knew. I'm following the fold-fold-fold/pound-pound-pound theory as instructed, but so far not much to show for it. I need a few winning nights to get my bankroll and confidence stable again. I wish I could point to one thing and say, "A-ha" and understand why I'm in such a slump, but nothing really leaps out. Just a dry, dry spell.

This is, of course, affecting my Presidential run. Hell, $40 won't even buy me a bus ticket to Washington. George W. Bush already has $99 million dollars stashed away for his re-election campaign--that's the equivalent of me winning the main event of the World Series of Poker 40 times. And while my winning the Presidency is about as likely as me winning the WSOP 40 times, I'm not deterred. Well, I'm deterred a little bit. A big weekend at the table will get this campaign back on track.

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