Down on the Upside

My patented seminar on going from the outhouse to a junior suite at The Plaza in 5 easy lessons will be accepting students shortly. Please make your checks out to "Lucky SOB."

Yes, it was another roller coaster weekend of poker for me. Absorbed a whuppin' in the cash games, beginning with assorted river beats, continuing with tilt-fueled donations and ending with clumps of my hair falling out.

Then I went and finished 12th in a $20/$2 MTT on Stars. And followed it up by finishing 13th in a $10/$1 MTT 24 hours later.

In the former, I spent the whole four hours with a short- to medium-stack. Nearly 800 players and I just barely managed to survive every step of the way. Just three people off the final table, I was first (and all-) in on the button with AK of diamonds. The BB called with A5o and spiked a five on the turn to put me out. Bad beat, but there was some satisfaction to get that far, based on the generally poor cards I was dealt. I only saw 11% of the flops and it wasn't because I was playing extra tight. Still, it was a good time. Had some talkative folks to play with the last hour, a nice environment. I was thankful for every increased pay level and felt lucky to have lasted as long as I did. Another final table would have been nice, but the finish was more than I probably could have asked.

The latter, well, the latter continues to gnaw at me. In stark contrast to the previous tourney, I had a lot of cards to play. Sixteen-hundred players and I was one of the chip leaders from the first hour on, thanks to flopping the nut flush and quadrupling up (God Bless the flop smooth call). Stayed pretty consistently in the top 50 into the fourth hour when I rocketed to 3rd overall--down to five tables--by winning a race, my AQs out-running pocket 9s. I was still 4th when we got down to two tables, but even with that standing, I didn't have a lot of chips relative to the blinds, roughly 15x the BB. After being forced to fold an entire level, I was down to only 9x. We were 7-handed at my table, with two of the players covering me. My chances of folding to the final table were becoming slimmer as the shorter stacks chipped up. I was running out of time and my cards were suddenly cold.

Finally, I got JJ on the button. Folds to me and I push. The chip leader calls from the BB and shows AA.

!%#!&%&@%$#!%#&%^%#*@^$#&#

I'm still not over it. Nice timing. It bugs me mainly because I really thought I had a chance to win this one. Cards were coming, I had been making good decisions, I have gained some experience playing late in these things. I felt like I went from a certain final table slot to out in such a short period of time. All it took was one. I EXPECTED to do better. Which is a good mind-set to have, I suppose. But I was sorely disappointed.

Regardless, those two finishes made it a profitable weekend, an idea that was preposterous around 3 p.m. on Saturday.

So, for the near future, cash games out, multis in. For one, the top 100 in tournament leader points for March get a freeroll to a WSOP main event qualifier (top 100 from each month of March, April and May play for 4 seats). I'm far from ready for that event. Odds are, in fact, I would soil myself before I would win a single pot, but if it's bleeping free to qualify, who am I to turn that down? I'm within hailing distance of the top 100 right now and a couple more good results could make it very interesting.

I'm also going to take more stabs at qualifying for the $350K guaranteed Sunday tourney on Stars. I tried the $3 re-buy on Saturday afternoon and did okay. The level of aggression in those re-buys is not a manner of play I'm entirely comfortable with, so perhaps a different route would be advisable. Not this week, Sunday being Easter and all, though with my bankroll "resurrections" of the last two weekends...

You'll all be happy to know that I also managed to finish painting the dining room this weekend. Okay, so maybe it's only the dear and patient wife who's happy. And me, because it's over. For you interior design afficianados, the color is "terra cotta pot."

Yes, I finally got the Mrs. some pot.