Mean Gene

Back in the saddle again. Did I say saddle? I meant...harness

I actually wrote this Monday night, but Blogger crashed and it didn't post. I post it now, and will post again soon. MG

A quote from the classic Britcom Black Adder there. Yes, tomorrow I end the carefree life of the unemployed and go back to work. I'm about ready. There's only so much daytime TV you can watch before your brain starts to go gooey. I think I watched every WPT event from this year twice during my hiatus. That's too much Vince Van Patten exposure in too short a time.

I of course don't know how the job will go until I actually get there and start doing it, but since I didn't like my last job the last 8 months or so, and I hated my previous two jobs, I'm naturally a bit leery. But I'm cautiously optimistic that this situation will be a bit different. Plus I'm still looking. And so, once more into the breach.

Working will cut into my reading, my yardwork, my tanning, and, most upsetting, my poker playing. I've been going back and forth between Party's $20 multi Pot-Limit tourneys and their $25 PL ring games, and I've been doing fairly well. I placed 4th in a PL tournament yesterday, pocketing a cool $90. That's the 2nd time I got in the money in one of these tournaments, which I feel are pretty doggone soft. I did get hugely lucky, I have to say. First of all, I played a hand so horribly that I may have actually learned something. I was dealt pocket nines and raised 3x the big blind. which was only like $75. The small blind, who was pretty shortstacked, raised me back $175. Probably shoulda mucked right there, but for a change I had chips and decided to take a flop.

Which came 8-7-5 rainbow. He went all-in, about $375. Now, lets stop and think about this a sec, which I didn't do at the time. What hands could this joker have? He re-raised me preflop. He went all-in after a ragged flop. He was not-so-subtlely saying, "I have a good hand, jackass". Meaning he probably had AA, KK, or QQ. But let's say he's your typical Party loon, which he really wasn't. Maybe he'd re-raise with JJ or 10-10, still leaving me totally boned. But...maybe he felt desperate and re-raised with a medium pair. Well, if he did that he might have made trips, since pocket eights, sevens and fives would set him up.

Basically I'm screwed unless this joker is bluffing with AK or AQ or something like that. Possible...but not worth risking so many chips. Which I promptly did. He turned over KK and waxed me. I was back to where I started, $1000 in chips, but at least I learned what I took as a valuable lesson--take a moment and THINK, dummy, before you act.

I was getting tired, and I decided to take a stand with AJ. Everyone folded until the big blind, who called me and turned over KK. Shit. I caught a meaningless jack on the turn, and then there was this pause before the river card flipped...and when it did, I saw an ace that was my salvation. Three outs on the river...well, I had the two jacks, too, but it was a pretty tasty suckout.

I managed to get my stack up to $4000 mostly by stealing blinds. Everyone folded to me five times in a row when I raised the pot, which was polite of everyone. But I couldn't get a hand to increase my stack. I made the final table in 6th chip position, and watched in amazement as the chip leader either lost his mind or let his cat play for him and lose all his chips on four consecutive hands. One second the guy had over $10K in front of him, the next there was an empty seat next to me. The play was pretty loose all night, and he did catch some cards to build his stack, but he could've sat on his hands and folded his way to the money.

I did my usual "bend but don't bust" routine and finished fourth. With only $1600 left and paying a $600 big blind I felt compelled to go all-in. I hadn't caught a decent hand the last orbit, and I didn't catch one then, either. I had 2-8 offsuit. Oh, why couldn't I have been dealt the Hammer? I would've been so much happier with 2-7 offsuit. The chip leader called me--and turned over pocket aces. Yipe. I did flop a deuce, and would've made two pair on the turn had I been so lucky as to draw the worst starting hand in Hold-Em. But that was the end of me.

I feel that I'm playing better, despite that debacle when I held 99. I've been getting a little bit better every time I play a tournament, I feel like every time I play I acquire just a tiny bit more knowledge and/or wisdom. And it's carried over to my ring play. I'd like to play in another live tournament sometime soon, but I may wait until the fall and/or winter so I don't feel like too much the slug for staying inside all day when it's beautful out.

Oh, there was a big series of articles in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about gambling here. We just passed a law allowing slots parlors, so there's a new focus on gambling here, since our governments seem to think this is the solution to our many financial difficulties. I'll be linking and writing about them maybe tomorrow. But for now, time for bed. Gotta get up early, early, early tomorrow.

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