Mean Gene

Up, Down, Up, Down

Already a roller-coaster of a weekend, and the Steeler game still awaits. Firstly, congrats to Ryan, who, like, WON the first event at the L.A. Poker Classic. A tidy little six-figure cash. Bloggers have been making kills left and right lately. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that one (or all) of the G-Vegas crew panned some serious gold down in Tunica this weekend. And Facty won a big event over at Full Tilt.

Last night I played in April's HORSE event at Full Tilt and stunk the place out, finishing in the mid-50s. Here's a tip--if you're playing a Hi-Lo game, and its obvious that you don't even have a draw at the low, raising when up against just one opponent is not an optimal play. I ended up getting rivered on two hands to give my two bottom-feeding foes the top hand as well, and I was out.

So I decided to blast out a few hands to clear my bonus. Yes, Mean Gene was FOUR-tabling last night, and having great fun at it. It didn't hurt that the deck took of the gloves and hit me in the face over and over and OVER again. I made quads against a guy who with a full house. Beat another guy set over set, and won a monster with boat over boat. Poker is a very easy game to play when you get the cards.

After booking a nice 30BB win I played today and posted a nice 40BB loss. The junk? Kicked. I actually think I played pretty well to lose as little as I did. I got great cards again--aces and kings twice, queens thrice, and AK at least a half-dozen times--but lost with them EVERY TIME. Every single time. Twice when I had queens I was up against aces--that gets expensive.

When you factor in the bonuses I earned I broke about even, which I can't be too upset about. I think I played OK both sessions, but the pendulum swung hither, then yon. I am a bit concerned about my ring play, as I tend to either win big or lose big. It used to be I'd eke out a 4BB win or a 2BB loss, but now my results are all over the place. Oh well.

With all the bloggers winning big events I feel I'm not holding my end up, so I played in a $5 tourney at Stars. Frustrating. I haven't played in many big MTTs, but, whilikers, the players are awful. I wanted to get chips or bust out, so when I had AK and flopped a king all the chips got in the middle. The other dude turned over Q-4 for middle pair and I doubled up. Uh, OK.

Then with 4-5 I flopped a wheel. There were 2 hearts on the board and I check-raised three limpers about the size of the pot. One caller, a blank on the turn and I bet about 3/4 of the guys stack. He called, and the heart on the river sunk me. I did get lucky when I sucked out with AJ against AQ, but I went out when I flopped top pair holding K-8 and ended up all-in against a guy holding A-8. When I say I flopped top pair I meant I paired my eight, not my King. But you figured that out by now.

So, some good luck, some bad luck. A bit more of the latter. But that's fine, as I need to save up as much luck as possible for my Steelers tomorrow. Yes, I've already purchased a fresh case of Yuengling. This may sound odd, but I found the mere sight of those yellow cans quite reassuring.

When you've suffered through as many tough losses as I have, it's not crazy to think back and look for omens that portended the coming defeat. I went over the heartbreaking losses the Steelers have had the last 10 years and tried to identify patters in my behavior that doomed them to defeat. Unfortunately, I gave myself a headache chasing my tail as I realized that I've tweaked and modified my behavior so many times over the years that I might in fact have been jinxing the Steelers when I meant to antijinx them. Hmm...maybe it is crazy after all. Eh, who cares. A padded cell doesn't sound all that bad to me, tell you the truth.

So tomorrow I'm getting up early (well, earlyish) and do some stuff around the house. And then I'm going for a nice hike in the park near my house. Burn off a little nervous energy. I did that before the Raven playoff game four years ago, and it worked well. And then head to Mark's to watch it all unfold.

No live-blogging the games like last year. If we win, visit this site and you will find out how delirium (and alcohol) affects my typing skills. If we lose...

We're not going to lose.

Go Steelers.

UPDATE: Well, just completed my worst day of poker ever. I dropped about 1/6 of my bankroll bit by bit in one day. This camel's back was broken by a moron who called 3 bets preflop with 3-4 suited and, after I check-raised the flop and bet the turn, went runner-runner to make his flush. Un-fucking-believable.

I can honestly say it was the bad beats that did me in. I didn't find myself outkicked, or up against an overpair while playing junk. I guess I can't get too upset losing that much when the cards were so brutal. And when you figure that I won a ton yesterday I'm not down all that much.

It's all one big session. The luck evens out. You must ride out the variance wave. I will learn from this and improve.

And rather than play till 4AM trying to get back to even, this tilty boy is going to bed.

Go Steelers.

UPDATE UPDATE: The omens continue to be favorable. I got knocked out on the 3rd hand of an SNG as my AQ flops top pair and runs into a set of tens. Yes, I completely suck. I have laundry going anyway, I should be attending to that.

God, I suck.

Go Steelers.

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