Big Wheel Keep On Turnin'

Christ. Seven years of college down the drain. Might as well join the fucking Peace Corps.
-- Bluto - Animal House


I don't know what it is about me and playing multiple tables. It always ends up where I kick the living snot out of one, I end up a little bit up on another, and I roll up and smoke my entire buy-in on the third. I mean, what the hell? This, of course, shoots the living shit out of all the profits from the table I am cleaning up at. For instance...

Table 1 - Buyin = $25, left with $31
Table 2 - Buyin = $25, left with $43
Table 3 - Buyin = $25, left with $21 -- only played for about 20 mins until the table broke up
Table 4 - Buyin = $25, left with $6 -- this is the table I went to after 3 broke up...

Craptactular! An amazing day turns rapidly into a break even day. Table 4 was a lesson in how creative bad players can get to suck you out. All the monster pocket cards died the death of a thousand screams. KK = lose. AK, suited or not = lose. High pocket pairs = guaranteed overcard hitting the board and pairing someone, usually on the river. Suited connectors = 4 to the straight or flush on the flop, no help from 4th or 5th street.

It gets worse. I'd be in the blind and get the "free flop", hit two pair and bet the shit out of it, only to get robbed at the river. It was absolutely craptacular!

Here's where working 3 or 4 tables at once really helps... I'm too busy to tilt. I'd only have time for an expletive or to hit the desk with my fist and the next hand would be up on a winning table and I'd instantly start feeling better by moving on. Also, I find that some days I'll hop around a bunch of tables as ones break up and I'll lose track of how I'm doing for the day. As a result, I don't worry about how my individual table buyins are doing... Just keep playing the game. At the end of the session, I load it all into PokerTracker and see how I did. That's where I was surprised at my lack of profit today.. Guess losing $25 on a table really dents the snot out of your profitable tables!

I can't complain too much, though... It's still a profit, albeit a tiny one. Beats the hell out of losing. I'm sort of mired in some hole here, though... For the last week and a half my bankroll has see-sawed between $425 and $475. I can't break that magical $500 mark!

I'm also facing down some decision making. As you know, I've been eyeing over some upgrades to the ole' computing rig. I have, in fact, made some purchases to that effect, but in order to finish the job, I'm thinking about tapping some of my winning off the bankroll. At first, I liked this idea. I can certainly play .50/1 comfortably with $300 or so in the bankroll, but I am setting myself pretty far back from the move up to 1/2, especially if I want to multi-table it. Since the video card purchase went on the credit card, I can wait a little bit to see if I can make some headway with this getting over $500. Also, I have some cash in pocket for the trip to Florida to pick up my dad's car. Depending on how economically I can pull off this trip, I might end up with a fair amount of that cash in hand at the end. These will all play into the decision to pull, and what amount, from the poker bankroll.

After hearing from several bloggers about Omaha and the lousiness of players there, I decided that while the wife was occupying the shower I'd sit down and poke around in the Omaha Hi/Lo tables in the free(for all) money section. I'm still trying to grasp the concept of the Lo hand... Hi hand I have nailed, and I'm pretty good at remembering that only two of my hole cards play, but I still suck... Which, after about 20 minutes of play, doesn't surprise me in the least. I need someone who knows WTF they're looking at to peek over my shoulder or something for a while.. Anyway, as I'm fooling around in there, they advertise a $0 buy-in $1000 freeroll to beta their multi-table tourney software, starting in about 10 minutes... I look at the clock, look at the door to the bathroom, and figure "why not" and register. I then left to start breakfast. Came back to take my seat then left again for another half hour. When I got back I had blinded around once or twice but was still in good shape. Wife sits down and I check the status page, expecting to see half the field already busted out (it is a freeroll, ya know). Nope. 1400 started, 1100 left. Crap. This is going to take a while. I fold garbage for about 20 minutes when I get TAo in the big blind. Four limpers and I check to see the flop, which comes rag-rag-ten rainbow. Top pair, top kicker.. I bet the pot and it's re-raised by middle position... This succeeds in scaring off the rest of the field and we're heads up. I call it down and start thinking about when he might have. Turn comes a 9 and the board represents all suits, no waiting. I throw out another pot sized bet and old boy across from me calls. Now I'm confused. Overcards? Second pair? TK? River comes another rag and I have top pair/top kicker. I bet out about half my stack and old boy across from me raises me the rest of my stack. Now I'm genuinely confused, and I'm also in bad bankroll shape, what with about 4/5 of my stack in the middle. I figure since he didn't raise pre-flop he's gotta have overcards and is trying to move me off the pot. I call it and he flips over pocket Kings. 942/1400. Outstanding. Good thing I didn't pay anything to play!

Prepare for another blogging draught from your Intrepid Card Player. Monday I'm going to head down to beautiful, exotic Clearwater, Florida to pick up the Old Man's luxuro-mobile and bring it up to the Land of the Cheese. I hear there is some low limit poker down around those parts, and I'm seriously thinking about playing a little on Monday when I get to town, but I have no idea where I can find a game. Anyone from 'round there care to point me in the right direction and let me know what their lowest limit is? I've been jonesing for a live game for a while. Anyway, I'm going to fly down Monday afternoon and hit the road on Tuesday. If all goes well and I can stand it, I SHOULD be home by Wednesday, but just in case I make slow progress, I've taken Thursday off, so we'll see. Taking a Benjamin off the locals in the cardroom before my little journey will help the "pillage my bankroll" decision immensely.