Poker is a frustrating game
Well, I’ve been here at Harrah’s Rincon for a day and I’m stuck around $750. I’ll keep it short because I feel like I keep complaining, but the beats are pretty sick. Literally the first hand of the $300+40 tournament, I was dealt kings and got it all in against aces. Pretty brutal.
Spent the rest of the day playing sit and go’s and didn’t win one. I busted out of a couple of them when I pushed short handed and someone woke up with a hand, but most of them were pretty sick beats. AK vs AQ vs A9 three way all in, I flop a king, and it comes runner runner clubs to chop the pot. AJ vs AT and he flops a ten. AT vs A9 and he turns a nine. The final S&G of the night I got to three handed and made a save for our $125 buyin, then busted out when I pushed with Ah8h and was called by KQo. We were all pretty even in chips, so he decided to call of his tournament life. Flop comes K69, two hearts. I pick up more outs on the turn when a seven hits, and of course I brick the river.
I feel like these WSOPC S&G’s have a lot of luck towards the end. Sure, there’s good short handed S&G strategy to be played, but it’s amazing what people will call an all-in with, and they seem to get lucky on me every time. I’m down a sickening $3k this month and down $5k for the last four months. I’m ready to not run so cold. Gritted my teeth and bought in for tomorrow’s $300+40 touranment, so we’ll try it all again tomorrow.
:/
The most frustrating 24 hours
My god, life is out to bite me in the ass right now. I just made it to Harrah’s Rincon in San Diego a little bit ago to play the World Series of Poker Circuit, and I’m already out. First hand, kings against aces. But that’s not even why I’m frustrated. That as just the icing on the cake of frustration. I warn you, I’m just posting this one to rant and get all the bad vibes out of my system.
So rooms last night were going for $299 here at Harrah’s. Retarded that anyone would pay that much for a room at a hotel in the boonies of San Diego. My WSOP rate for tonight and tomorrow are like $89 — much saner. So I had to get a room at a Comfort Inn off the freeway, about a half hour drive from the casino. Drove down from Vegas last night, and had to make the drive up to the casino last night just to give them my $340 for today’s tournament. Oh, and Harrah’s no longer even gives a $10 food comp when you pay them their $40 rake. Pouring rain on the one-lane undivided curvy road up and down the mountain. I did catch well that I missed an accident on the “way up” lane by about 20 minutes.
Guy at the hotel was an idiot. He quoted me a rate 50% higher than what I had seen on the Internet earlier that day. Had to call Aaron to have him book it on his computer (thanks, Aaron) — total waste of all of our time. Hotel guy told me the wrong entrance for the hotel, so I was stuck walking around the hotel in the pouring rain. No hot water this morning.
So yeah, all that work just to bust out in literally one hand. Went to check in and my room wasn’t available. They told me it’d be another four hours. I escalated the situation though and got it resolved (whew). So I sit in my hotel room now at 12:30pm trying to get off tilt so I can get back in the poker room and grind out some winnings. After all, that’s why I’m here.
oh… super random. So I go on a quest for some food last night and find a Jack In The Box 5 miles from the hotel. Yeah, that was the closest food. Ate a disgusting chicken fajita pita, but then found a little bar called Ringer’s in Bonsall, CA. So rad. No cover, $3.50 beers, with a classic rock-ish cover band. Chatted up with a local who’s a regional manager for Island’s. I love going to random places and meeting random people. It was definitely surreal — one of those moments when you walk in and you feel like the music stops and everyone looks at you. Well, not really, but they were definitely wondering what someone under 40 that they didn’t recognize was doing at their bar.
OK, off to post a few emails and get back into some sit & go’s downstairs with all of the other suckers. Peace.
I just lost the biggest pot of my life
Well, I just lost the biggest pot of my life tonight playing $2/$5 NL at the Red Rock Casino. I decided to get a few hours in after dinner, and was joined at my table by TV’s Gavin Smith in the 7 seat and Peter Feldman (known on the Internet as Nordberg, won the WSOPC New Orleans & San Diego) in the 8 seat. You would think I would run for the hills, but Gavin told us he was on life tilt, and he was playing super loose. Usually this results in a bunch of big pots, so I stuck around in the 10 seat.
I lost my first buyin ($500) on AQ vs AK on an ace high board. My second buyin ($600) I lost to Peter when he flopped trips and I had a pair and a flush draw and missed. I went to the ATM and ran the third $500 buyin up to $1700 by playing solid and making a hero call with jacks preflop for a $1200 pot. Then the brutal hand came up.
I was in the big blind, and I almost picked up and left before this hand as I don’t like to have $1700 on the table. And I have a rule: never say “one more orbit.” But I found myself in the big blind, and after a couple limpers, Gavin made it $30, which he did quite often. Peter smooth called on the button, and I looked down at two black aces. I made it $150, as I had done a few times with lesser hands when it was clear both Gavin and Peter were messing around and didn’t have much of hands. Gavin called, as he likes to gamble, but then Peter made it $520 to go. At this point, I realized Peter had called Gavin with a big hand. I put him on AK/AQ or TT+. And as he had seen that I have reraised in this spot before, he could be making a play on me hoping I had nothing or would fold a hand like AJ.
Now, I would have loved to smooth call the $400 here, but Gavin is a gambler and would have been in here, and I don’t want to play blind against two other players. Further, my read was that Peter was not messing around and had something. If I went all in for my last $1400, I don’t think he would call with tens or jacks, and he would possibly muck queens. I decided to Hollywood quite a bit, only because I respect Peter as a poker player. I pretended to have jacks and made it look like I had a really tough decision. Gavin chimed in and asked why I made it $130 in the first place. I remained silent and looked disgusted at the situation. After about two minutes, I looked over at Peter and said all-in. Gavin predictably mucked, and Peter, having me covered, insta-called. I rolled over my aces and he rolled over kings. I got a bit of flack for Gavin for the Hollywood act, but then he commended me and said I played it well and he didn’t figure me for aces.
You know the rest of the story. A king flopped and I lost a $3500 pot, which is the biggest pot of my life. The sick thing is I felt like it was going to come, and almost stopped the dealer to offer Peter a deal so we wouldn’t have to see the flop. Not sure if he would have accepted a deal or if the house would have even allowed me to do a deal, but I felt it and should have known. Sick $3500 swing. Sick pot. What can ya do?
