Forgiving my immune system

I played a 200+ player tournament on Sunday night, got zilch cards and went out 80th calling a raise all-in (me all-in) with A7o. Well, I was short-stacked and had reason to believe the raiser might have something as weak as KQ or JQ.

I haven’t gotten anywhere in multi’s lately, although I play very, very few of them. Yet, reading my old non-poker blog I note that in the space of a couple of days I managed to get to the penultimate table in a 151-runner affair and, better, a 344-runner event. Both times I was somewhat unlucky to get eliminated in hands that would have given me the stack to cruise to the final table.

No matter; I play tournaments only as a diversion, they are like my own version of buying a national lottery ticket. They are somewhat more fun than watching a dreadful TV show in which an audience of idiots actually applaud and cheer as random numbers are spewed from a machine, while a commentator says things like ‘Number 43! It’s been six weeks since we last saw that one, although its actually one of the most popular numbers, having appeared 134 times since the start of the lotto draws.’

I’m feeling somewhat better today, finally starting to kick the virus I think. The weekend was not quite as restful as it should have been; I succumbed to snooker temptation on Saturday night, then got dragged kicking and screaming to a late bar, then went back to G’s house where we watched a DVD, drank some vodka, and went to bed about 2am. Oops.

I didn’t feel too clever on Sunday or Monday, making a week since I came down with this shit. I’ve been ill quite a lot this year, but somebody did point out to me that I’ve been through almost all the top stress factors in the past year and a bit, so my immune system can be forgiven. Since June last year, I have moved city, changed job, split up with my partner of almost seven years, moved house again, left job and city to move back home, and all the while facing serious money/debt problems. I think I hold it together quite well, considering!

Poker-wise, the weekend was fairly crappy. Small win Friday night, annoying losses on Saturday over four hours of quite frustrating play - a few bad beats, a few bad decisions. Sunday night, I made a hundred bucks at an Omaha table, but even that was somewhat frustrating! I got ahead over a hundred quite early, in a pot where my top set got raised all-in by a guy who was drawing dead, but over the next couple of hours I just could not push it on into a really big stack.

Last night was nice. I had some other stuff to do online so I only played for an hour and a quarter, but that reaped $69. $30 at PLO 6-max (I never play a full ring-game any more) and $39 profit from winning a sit and go, having been way shortest stack with six players left.

There was one hand in the cash game that has been bugging me, and which shows why I am not that good a player. Three players in the pot, I am between the two. I turn the nut straight with all low cards on board. Short stack comes out with a micro bet. I raise about half the pot. Third guy (similar stack to mine) calls the raise as does the weak first guy. The river – yuk – pairs the board. Weakie checks. I think, but not clearly enough, and also check and hope for a free showdown. Third guy bets just over two thirds the pot. Weakie folds. This bet screams bluff, and I actually typed ‘So you don’t want a call?’ into the chat. But I folded, not wanting to blow back my winnings by calling into the nuts. He showed a busted straight draw as he took down my pot, so at least I got some information out of him.

I made two horrendous, weakling mistakes here, and I am pissed off with myself. First, I should undoubtedly have bet the river; having raised the turn I could easily have been taken for a set that had filled up. If the other dude had the balls to bluff-raise against my shows of strength he would have deserved the pot, but I would almost certainly have taken it down.

Secondly, I should have trusted my judgement about his large river bet. If you have a full house looking to get paid off, you don’t bet big against two people who have already checked. His bet gave me better than 2-1 odds to call, and I felt there was more like a 40/60 chance he was bluffing – but I let the money make me fold. That’s a terrible, terrible poker mistake. If we were playing for ‘points’ rather than cash then I would have called like a shot.

Oh well, I shan’t dwell on it, and I will allow myself the small mitigating factor that the opponent was new to me. Live and learn.

Final words: very pleased with the Patriots setting a new NFL record for consecutive wins. I’m just about over that Superbowl XX mauling now. And I’m glad my movie recommendation of ‘The Station Agent’ went down well with an esteemed reader.