Life is too easy for beautiful women

Strewth, I must be getting addicted; I hated not posting yesterday even though I didn’t play on Tuesday night. That was one of my best poker decisions in a while; I was very tired and needed to catch up some sleep. Also, I think that I play a little better when I am consciously deciding to play rather than just booting up the laptop because that’s what I do. And when I am a little fresh it helps too, with the patience and the focus.

Anyways, I didn’t post yesterday because I had a ton of meetings at work. Not something you will read often in here.

I played last night though, for about three hours. Pot Limit Omaha the whole time, with a PLO sit ‘n’ go and a multi-table tourney during the evening also.

The multi (no limit hold ‘em of course) was only a $5 + 1 and I don’t think I will bother with such small buy-ins any more. I find a difference even from 10 or 15 buck games, a fiver is just so small nobody gives a toss and you cannot buy a pot. To build a stack you simply HAVE to get some big cards or some big luck. I went out 95th out of 229 having never flopped a thing, wishing I could be like the doofus who called all-in pre-flop with A-7 versus a raise and re-raise. The other guys had 77 and KK but the Ace came and we had our early chip leader.

The sit and go was strange, somehow. For a start, there appeared to be two players who literally did not understand the rules. One went out early when he called two all-in players on the river (both of whom had the flush) with ONE PAIR.

I found myself in the last four players inside two rounds, having barely put a chip in the middle and without a single winning hand. I was the short stack by quite a margin, but thanks to the early stage and tiny blinds I was able to stay patient. The other players kept at it hammer-and-tongs and I was in the money before long. At this point I got aggressive and managed to eliminate one guy to get myself heads-up with a 2-1 chip defecit. After some cat-and-mouse I wound up level on chips, but when the blinds got serious I couldn’t find a hand and had to settle for a reasonable second place. Last three PLO sit ‘n’ goes: 1st, 2nd, 2nd. I have been happy with the way I have avoided the ‘almost-not-worth-it’ third place by being aggressive at that stage.

The PLO cash turned out pretty well. I went down about $25 early, and could never quite claw it back for ages and ages. However, I stayed reeeeal patient, used position well to nick a few pots, and eventually my big hands came. I managed to finish exactly $50 up, which was pleasant enough and had everything to do with game selection (mostly weak players), paying attention, and patience.

Oh, one weird thing from the multi table tournament; when I got sat at my table, who should be there as well but the organiser of the home game I used to play in regularly. We are getting back into action this coming Tuesday evening, and I can’t wait! Poker with added banter, beer, laughs, cigarettes (joints in some cases), actual cards and actual chips… lovely! Sometimes I forget that I own a good number of proper clay chips and a dealer button. Anyway, I may take the stakes for that game out of my online bankroll next week, try to treat all poker as a proper separate-bankroll thing.

That’s about it. Many bloggers have been riffing this week on Iggy’s post about ‘losing well’ and related thoughts. It reminds me most of a good quote from Jesse May’s (over-rated) novel ‘Shut Up And Deal’ – about how the hard part of poker is not mastering the skill, but mastering the luck.

This morning I’ve been trawling a lot of blogs that I hadn’t read in ages. ‘Stripper by Night’ doesn’t get many mentions, but is an interesting read. I’d love to have her online bankroll. I’d also love to have her body – I’m sure I could strip or lapdance my way out of my debts pretty quickly. Sigh... life is just too easy for beautiful women!