Successfully Unsuccessful

I managed to rake in a big profit of $.56 from the cancelled Lucky Dollar tourney.. Believe it or not, in the 40 minutes it took before they cancelled the tourney, it was already down over 300 people. The table I was playing at was certainly no indication of that.. Everyone was content to take little jabs at each other, but in that 40 minutes, we only said goodbye to one guy. A few minutes before the crash I managed to draw up a nut flush on the turn and raked in a very nice pot, so I was slightly above the chip average when the shit hit the fan.

So, before the evening session, I logged in to find my account at $58.71.

The ring games were pretty brutal tonight at first.. I was on the slowest 50/1 game I think I've ever experienced but it seemed like pretty good hunting ground, so I just spun up another table while I waited... Long story short, I was up about $7 on one table, and down about $3 on the other. The table I was up on started breaking up, so I left that one and just concentrated on the table I was down on... Got rivered badly twice and staggered away from there about $14 lighter. Decided, since things were nutty on the ring games, I'd try a $6 sit and go.

I sat down to a rock garden. Everyone was sort of taking half-jabs at each other but retreating quickly when anyone showed any sign of strength. I'd have joined in on the shove match, but I was getting issued a steady diet of crappy cards, so anything I was going to do would have been a stone cold bluff. My plan of curling up in the corner and hiding wasn't paying off and the blinds started to hurt. I finally was down to about 600 chips and the blinds were now 50 and 100. Trouble was a-brewin'. In the big blind, I looked down at JTh... The small blind, a guy who seemed to always take the opportunity to push me around, made it 200 to go. I upped it to 350 hoping to scare everyone else out, but I got 2 other callers. 4 way pot for the flop, which came down with a Jack, a Queen and one heart rag. Ruh-row. Check around to bossy boy in the SB, who tosses T200 in. I'm now down to T250. With the blinds the way they are, I'm crippled, so I push all in and pray.

Turn came a K, and the river another Q, and I'm out in 7th.

I can honestly say that, after that, I full on tilted. After a few of the 7 words you can't say on television, I head to a ring table to exact my revenge.

Three hands into the ring game, I'm in the BB with AA. Now, remember, I'm playing through a red mist. I mean, I'm really spooled up. It's go time. I raise the bettor, the guy next to me 3 bets it and it eventually gets capped pre-flop. The boards flops KT6 rainbow. I'm begging someone to have a K and I bet out.. The raiser next to me two bets it, I three bet and it caps again. Turn comes a 7 or something inconsequential. No chance for a flush or straight, I bet out, raised again to my right, and I call it, knowing I'm not running this guy off. River comes a 9. I check for the trap, he bets, I raise, the clingons on the other side of the table finally fold after nicely paying us to the river, and I call it at three bets. "Happy Days are Here Again" is ringing through my head when the raiser shows...


wait for it....

pocket 9's. Shithead pressed into me with pocket 9's and a board of crap and hit his miracle river card to rake in an almost $30 pot.

My head exploded.

If I was smoking before, now I've been stoked into a full blown blaze. I resolve to walk away from this table a winner or broke, and I loosened up some.

Turns out, I should play on "tilt" more often. I still remained somewhat tight, but I loosened up my card selection and started seeing alot more flops. In two hours, I had worked from being down to $15 to being over $45. I was on fire! When I had top pair, I made guys pay to draw out on me. I had a good sense of when I was beat and released. I was in the zone!

So, when the night ended, my balance was $58.71.

I made exactly zero ground tonight...

But then again, I didn't lose any either.

I really need to find $40 and register PokerTracker so I can see just how bad pocket Aces are killing me. I swear they NEVER hold up for me. They're the Cards of Death for me, because you can't in good conscious slow play them pre-flop, and seldom do you see boards that should scare you, but it always seems someone manages to make their set with some punk-ass hand. Me being incredibly poor at the moment, though, there will be no PokerTracker goodness for me, so I'll just have to keep collecting hand histories for the time I do get it registered.

Links are on in place now. If something doesn't work, let me know. Thanks Liquid Sword for sorting me out on the code for that! Now if I could just get some help with my poker game!