WPBT Recap

I took a health class one time which encouraged what seemed to me a strange method of quitting smoking. The text suggested power smoking ciggie after ciggie, thus making yourself ill and theoretically turning you off to the evil tobacco forever and ever. I laughed then and now at that method, since loading yourself up with all that addictive goodness as a manner of quitting would prolong your withdrawl symptoms.

Yet, after 10 hours of poker and blogging yesterday, I'm ready for a break from the tables. Yikes. I over-indulged at the Hold 'Em buffet. Too much starch. I feel literally awful this morning. My back is yelping, there have been two nosebleeds, only one of which I initiated with over-aggressive picking, and I lapse into double vision once an hour. Add that to the seeping guilt over my 24-hour disregard for parenting and husbanding, and you have one motherfucker of a poker hangover.

That said, I had a blast. I wish I wasn't playing in that $5 re-buy when the WPBT event began. Early details from the latter are a little fuzzy. I know I was seated with Bob, stannum and John-Paul in the beginning. Later joined by Chris Halverson, who was replaced by pokerprof. I know there was at least one other blogger there, but he escapes me just now. All apologies. If you're out there, lemme know and I'll edit.

I chipped up a bit in the first hour with a couple big pockets (aces and queens, I think). Those extra chips helped me bet stannum out of a pot where I held 99 and he held 88. There was a king on the flop and he raised my bet. I called and then put the pressure back on him on the rag turn with a T500 bet. I certainly didn't know I was ahead, but I figured with my extra chips I could get him to fold a better hand (like TT or JJ) with that king out there. Fold he did, and a good one at that.

Then my JJ ran into Big Slick and a river ace to cut me in half. That one hurt. Instead of a Big Stack, I'm back to starting chip level at the break.

Second hour is fuzzy, too. I blame the beer. Other tough hand was all-in pre-flop (I raised, was called in one spot and re-raised by the pokerprof) with AQs. prof showed KT and third player Big Slick. I thought I was in Suckout Heaven when I flopped a queen. But there was also a 9. And prof hit the Jack(pot) on the turn. You sonofagun. I did get the side pot from Big Slick, however, and was still in it, though just barely.

I managed to pull myself back up to about T1100. Then I pushed over the top of a 4x raise with Big Slick. Pre-flop raiser called with KT. Turned a ten to put me out. And that, folks, is how reader mad_scorpion gets his name in the blog. He promised to start reading here as penance for his brutal infliction of suckouttery. Just kidding, bud. You played well. I finished 25th of 109, a slightly better result than my 144th place standing last time out. Thanks also to Glyph (LA Blogger Solidarity is a beautiful thing), Pauly and others for sweating and entertaining.

I stuck around to watch the finish, resisting the overwhelming urge to provide Vince Van Patten-esque commentary at the Final Table (Iggy's stack dwarfs the others; pumpkin carves out another win). Seriously, you folks don't know how close you were to being subjected to that tripe. Congrats to GameC for his win and to all the others top finishers.

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Okay, so I really am an addict. Despite all of the above, the endless hours of poker, blogging, drinking and my complaints about it all, I played some .10/.25 NL Omaha Hi/Lo while sweating the final table. I, um, tripled my buy-in. In 20 minutes. I'm new to the Omaha game, but feel like I'm picking it up in leaps and bounds. Of course, when you twice turn a wheel and get nimrods to pay you off, it's easy to profit. Which is exactly what happened last night. I'd wager there will be a big jump in the Omaha content in this space in the coming weeks. As such, can anyone recommend a good source for Omaha knowledge? A site, a book? Appreciate it.

I AM actually gonna take a break from the tables. Definitely tonight, probably Friday and definitely Saturday, which is the dear and patient wife's birthday. Nevertheless, I will have a post up tomorrow, one I've been working on for a while. Don't get too excited, it's about baseball. Opening Day is Monday, you know. A national holiday around my house. Maybe a running diary on Monday if I re-gain the feeling in my legs.