Life Shouldn't Be A Fuckin' Grind

I will never be a poker pro, but my lifetime poker ledger is positive and I think that's something to be proud of.

Saturday, February 28, 2009

A Sweet Session

It's been quite a while since I've posted, so first a little catch up. I've had very spotty internet access the last couple weeks, so I haven't really been playing online much. When I have I've been kinda up and down, with nothing interesting having happened. The same can't be said of my live play.

I left Alabama on Feb 13 and now I'm in California. Since then, I've actually played more live poker than I probably had in the previous year. On the way out of 'Bama, I stopped in Biloxi for the night and played another 4/8 session at the Beau Rivage. I swung up and down in that session with a high of +$80 (only about 10 BB though), but ultimately ended up leaving stuck around $50. A few days later, I spent the night in Tucson, AZ as part of my cross country trip and played a 3/6 session at one of their casinos. That one went quite poorly as I bought in for $150 and walked away a few hours later with my last 10 dollars after getting bluffed off JJ on an AKQxx board with three diamonds. Then, the next night I was in Vegas and of course had to play poker. So, I sat 3/6 at MGM Grand and ultimately dropped $110.

In past three sessions, I was now stuck $300. Throw in the fact that my previous three live sessions before that were +$18 at 4/8, -$200 at a 2-8 spread limit game and break even at a 5/10 game in Texas, I was looking at a downswing of close to $500 and six losing or break even sessions since joining the Air Force in 2008. I realized that all of these sessions had something in common, they'd come either hatless or with my new LA Dodgers hat (which I really like), but none with the old Bengals hat that I used to wear at the Argosy when I was winning all the time.

So, last night I showed up at the Chumash Casino in Central CA, about 30 minutes from my new home, sporting my faded old Bengals hat and I think I may have had the winningest session of my life (in terms of BB). I bought in for a rack at 3/6 and made a flush with Ad7d on the first hand that I played and I really never looked back. I think swung down to about even, then won a big pot with AA and was off to the races. I made multiple flushes, I won with AA, KK and QQ, I even made a full house at one point. Actually, that full house was really fun. It was towards the end of the session and we were like 5 handed. I raised with QhJd and got 2 callers. The flop came Jc7c5s, the first guy bet, I raised and they both called. The turn was the Jh and I bet and they both called, then the river came the Qd and again I bet and they both called. So, it was nice to win a huge pot there. All told, after just about 5 hours I wound up with a $230 win, a win of more than 38 BB. I'm pretty sure it was my biggest BB win ever and boy it felt nice. The funny thing is, I'm still stuck over the last two weeks and over the last 9 months, but this puts a huge dent in it and gets me back on track.

I know it's stupid, but I give at least some credit to the hat. I know I shouldn't be superstitious, but I think there's something to be said from a psychological standpoint on the success that I've had in the past with that hat on and the lack of success that I've had without it. If nothing else, it's a huge coincidence that my downswing happened without the Bengals hat on.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

 

mesothelioma