You're the Inspiration

Every post this week will have a Chicago song title, just for drizz.

Upon further review, making the final table in an MTT is way better than not cashing at all, which is what happened on my three other attempts this weekend. Dropped nearly a fifth of my Saturday morning winnings, thanks to multiple re-buys and again just not getting that one break I need. That and losing with AA to QT.

So no more bitching about not taking the top slot.

Happily, I was able to off-set those losses with a couple in-the-money finishes on the two-table $20 SnGs on Stars (no, I didn't win either of them. Shocker) and a ridiculous run in $2/$4 limit. Ridiculous as in tripling my buy-in in about an hour. Ridiculous as in the deck smacking me around and getting multiple callers/raisers Every. Single. Time. Hey fellas, I'm betting here! I've got a huge hand! You! Chasing the flush! You're drawing dead to my flopped boat! You! Capping the betting every round! See those two sevens on the board! I've got the other two!

It was wonderful.

But there was a low. I'm not playing at Party Poker ever again.

With the dear and patient wife and AJ sleeping off their Mother's Day brunch and me still nursing along a nice bottomless mimosa buzz, I went looking for a tourney. Bad time for the Stars offerings, so, against my better judgement (which really isn't all that good to begin with), I pulled up Party. I had decimated my account last week, pulling out my Vegas stake, but left a few hunny in there for the Mrs. to play some SnGs. And for me to enter their $30 MTT starting in 3 minutes.

I am not exaggerating when I say I saw some of the worst poker play imaginable. The check-raise bluff with no pair into a set of aces. Unimproved J3o on the river pushes into pocket kings. It was like a Fellini film.

I managed to avoid being hit with any major damage. I even folded the best hand once on the turn (in the face of heavy betting when the third spade fell) and saw bottom pair hit his 5-outer against someone else on the river. Wasn't getting a lot of cards, but picked up a few hands and had an average stack into Level 5.

And then...

I flop two-pair in the BB with J2s. Small stack pushes behind my check and I call. He has KJ. Turn is a 9 of hearts, also giving me the flush draw. River is the 9 of clubs, bending me over and giving me a good hiding. Terrific.

I still have 10x the BB and am in no rush when I see Cowboys a level later (75/150). A minimum raise from the CO (and you have never seen so many minimum raises in your life) and I bump it to 600. BB and CO call. Flop is J85 rainbow. I push my remaining 900 and the BB calls. With 95o.

The nine on the river sent me into a rage of never-before-seen proportions. I'm not kidding. I absolutely fucking lost it. First time in a LONG time. After stalking around the backyard for 15 minutes, smoking furiously and mumbling to myself like a crazy person, I returned to the computer and withdrew my remaining Party funds (except for sme play around money for the Mrs.).

Rash? Perhaps. But I'm fine with it even in the light of day. I'm playing mostly tourneys now and the structure is SO much better at Stars. With one exception, I've never been much of a contender in the Party MTTs.

In the long run, I'm probably giving away money by not at least playing some limit there. These truly awful players are gonna make a lot of people rich. But I'm not ashamed to say I can't handle the variance right now. Emotional control hasn't really been a problem for me lately, but that would change after a week of soul-sucking beats at Party. I'm sure of it. Perhaps I'll come back after I work on that aspect of my game, despite the chicken-egg nature of the problem. If it's only Party that makes me insane, do I really need to work on it?

So, I've got a nice chunk of change for Vegas (thanks for THAT anyway, Party). And if I come back home with anything left over, I'm gonna put it in Full Tilt. My LA blogger friends gotta eat, you know.