Gasoline Is Expensive

Especially when you drive a Lincoln Town Car from Florida to Wisconsin. The drive went uneventfully though, so that's no concern...

Florida was nice. At least the 6 hours of it I saw... Some friends of the family picked me up from the airport and we had dinner. Afterwards, I headed over to the dog track/card room to meet up with Decker. I was seated at a different table then him when I arrived, but before I could even sit down and place a bet they called me for the open seat on 20, where Decker was. I sat down in the 1 seat and Decker moved over to the 2 seat while I bought into the $2 straight bet game for $60... I figured this would be a sufficient buyin.

Silly me.

I decided to pass until the blinds came around, but it appeared that that wasn't necessary, as I kept being dealt in. I figured this for a mistake and just automucked my cards until the blind showed up, but some other people sat down later on and were dealt in and played their hands without posting an initial buy-in, so I guess I could have played those hands I was dealt. Oh well. As usual at live games, I proceeded to gather trash and put on a muck fest. Decker was in several hands with some decent holdings, which allowed me to at least follow some progress on the table...

Now, I've been to some pretty fast and loose games here at the Indian casinos. The 2/4 game at the Ho-Chunk is pretty loose and bad, but it didn't hold a friggin candle to this table. With a few notable exceptions, there were no less then 6 people seeing the flop. About 70% of the time, it was a raised pot, and about 25% of the time the pot was raised, it was capped pre-flop. And we're not talking about premium hand vs. premium hand. No sir. K6 offsuit? Raise it up! 75s? Monster hand, man, cap it!!! I was witness to some hellatiously huge pots for a $2 straight bet table, taken down by some of the worse poker playing I've seen since I was able to paw at cards.

I was my usual tight/aggressive self, which, at a table like this, was an invitation to lose my chips. My first move of the day after folding for the last half hour was to open raise from late position when it was (amazingly) folded around to me. This drew the attention of everyone downline, who noticed that the ultra-tight out of towner must be holding a monster and they all mucked, giving me the blind. Weee. I figured from the reaction that my bets would get a little respect, so when around 20 minutes later I'm dealt pocket aces, I figured my raise would thin the field.

Nope.

By the time it gets back around to me, it's been re-raised and there's one other person hanging on. I cap it and it's called by both the crazy Chinaman across from me (who to this point has been bet/raising everything and pulling off some miracles that would make Jesus weep) and the calling station in the 7 seat. Flop comes with a king and two rags, mens warehouse. Excellent flop for me, and the Crazy Chinaman bets out. If it had been anyone else at the table, I would have taken pause, but this guy, like I said, bets everything and raises everything else. I auto-raise and get called. Turn comes some at-the-time-unremarkable card and we go to the cap, the 7 seat still hanging on. The pot is monstrous at this point. River drops a no-straight/no flush/no boat potential and I'm bet into again. Now I'm really starting to think. It takes a lot, but he DOES occasionally (and I DO mean occasionally) fold, so he MUST have something. I'm hoping that he's working on a pair of kings, but that old familiar "I'm holding aces and I'm fucked" feeling starts in the pit of my stomach. I call, Chinaman turns over his K6o for the rivered two pair and I muck my aces in disgust.

I never recovered after that. I played into a couple of pots that I missed on, and when Decker bid adieu I was down to around $25. I followed him out the door 30 minutes later empty handed, having my AKo beaten when the Q paired someone and I got no help.

Violating the "never throw good money after bad" adage, I sit down and start playing some Party, aching for some at least SANE poker. I sit down and buy in, then suddenly realize that I now consider 50/1 Party SANE! I shake it off and drop another $25 in the ring. Disgusted even more, I decide that since I'm full of bile and remorse, I'd better take it out on a no-limit game, so I fired up a $5 sit and go and took 2nd.

Total loss for the day: $75. But $60 of it was sort of "extra cash" and not associated with my bankroll, so the poker bankroll is still in decent shape.

I had to take $140 out of the bankroll. Since I'm thinking I'm going to stay in the 50/1 game for a while, this really shouldn't make a huge dent.

Just remind me never to play live poker again unless I can get into a tournament or something where absolutely shitty players will eventually go away. As it is, with live low limit play, the implied collusion makes me wonder if it's nothing more then a complete crapshoot, in which case I might as well go play craps!