Saturday, February 07, 2009

Slip Slidin' Away

Some days are rough. Yesterday was a real bad one and today's likely to be about the same. I've enjoyed playing in the DSE the past two days but it's an omen of greater things -- my luck is clearly nowhere at the moment.

The first day I had a table with at least five horrid players, and a couple of those were replaced as they departed with still other easy marks. Alas, my card distribution was just too poor to overcome. In nearly six hours of play, I saw exactly one pocket pair over eights -- kings, which got no action -- and found A-K exactly twice. I scrambled and stole and picked spots and played hard with no chips all day, and finally went out in Level 9 (40-minute levels) when, in the small blind with a measly 9,000 in chips, I correctly picked off a button steal from a woman with a suited 5-3. (She could play, but was in the minority here.) I had A-8 off so it was a likely call anyway, but I thought it was good all along. Of course, the big blind then wakes up with kings....

Yesterday, I had better cards but a much tougher table, filled with visiting internet pros and tough young locals. I hung around for two hours essentially at par, moved up to about 20,000 shortly after the first break, made an overaggressive play and got picked off for about 5,000, got short-stacked, doubled through, picked off an even shorter stack, then, on my third table of the day, got bad-beated to the door when some really fat slobby donkey tried to push me off my big blind with J-6 suited (clubs). I'm fat, and this guy had me by a good 150. He jammed, I had 10-10 and snap-called, and watched the board flop a jack, the turn bring a ten (clubs), and the river the stupid four of clubs to knock me out.

This was some kind of clown, in the sense it's hard to imagine anyone wanting to be married to him. He had a half-full water bottle and a used kleenex in my drink holder. He fetched his water bottle -- after I requested he move it -- but left the kleenex behind. So I banged the cup holder free from underneath the table, dumped his snotball catcher with a bit of a show and moved on; he's not tilting me if that's his intent, but I don't mind him thinking that if that's his plan.

It was about a lap later when he crapped out his flush. Still, I take one grain of solace. I'd peeked early that hand, as I'm wont to do about one hand per lap after listening to Joe Navarro's seminar about reading other opponents. No way Mr. Snotblubber makes a move on me if he gets a read I'm sitting on an auto-play hand.

As for the cards themselves, not much I can do. And it was again Level 9, by the way. I finished something like 95 or 100 out of 295.

But a real bad mood for me -- no more poker for sure this trip. It's just general life tilt. When I get real real down certain songs come to mind, and I'm reminded this morning of a passage from Paul Simon's "Slip Slidin' Away":

"I know a woman
Became a wife
These are the very words she uses to describe her life
She said a good day
Ain't got no rain
She said a bad day's when I lie in bed and think of things that might have been"

One of the best songwriters of our time. Exuent stage left.

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