Bah

Friday was such a frustrating day for me. Any interaction I had with other people just resulted in more frustration. By the time 5:00 rolled around, I was ready to explode. My nerves were shot and I felt like a woman, almost in tears. I'm not sure what all triggered my frustrations. It was basically just a tough week and things just kept piling on until Friday I couldn't take it anymore. That evening, I abandoned all plans and just secluded myself from the outside world. I was in no state of mind to be on the poker tables, but I had to get away some how.

I did sit down to grind and continued to grind and grind. I wasn't getting stacked left and right, but I knew it was a bad session. I felt like I was constantly getting 3-bet before the flop or every time I whiffed a flop, my c-bet would get raised or if I did hit the flop, I got zero action. There were a few coolers and a few bad beats, but nothing out of the norm. It was just poker being a bastard again. I was a little amazed when it was all said and done and I had lost 3.5 buyins. I finally called it a bad night and went to bed.

The next morning, I woke up early, eager to get those 3.5 buyins back. I did some datamining and studied a bit while I collected some data. Then I sit down at several juicy tables, only for things to continue to go bad. I played another marathon session and lost another 6 buyins. More of the same. No action when I flop good, crazy action when I flop weak. Over and over and over it went.

I decided to switch things up a bit after that. I had to take a break to work on my leaky toilet. This 30 minute job turned into a 3 hour ordeal with multiple trips to Lowes. Plumbing sucks. After that, I decided to play some $11+1 SnGs. I fired up 6 at a time and bam! I had a couple firsts, a 2nd, and a 3rd out of the 6 SNGs. Awesome! 3 buyins back in one round! Then I decided to brag on my blog and you all know how that goes.

I played some more sets, twice not cashing in a single tournament during a set. I mixed it up between the $6+.5's and the $11+1's. I continued to go downhill. Once I got to the bubble, I could do well. I have been studying ICM concepts and how to play the bubble in a SnG. At these limits, the opponents just let you run over them at the bubble. Occasionally you'll run into a good hand, but for the most part, you can take a sub-par chipstack with 4 people left and turn it into a monster chipstack in just a few hands. Once I got into the money, I'd do fairly well, claiming quite a few 1st place victories. Other than that though, I took a lot of tough beats. I can think of at least 4 runner runner beats I took Saturday and Sunday and that's just off the top of my head. I spent a lot of time cursing the poker Gods.

The only really good thing that happened over the weekend was me finally getting a chance to see The Poor Taters. This is probably the most talented local band around. Their genre of music is not that popular. It's not one that I turn to very often, but damn it's some mighty fine music. They write most of their own stuff. The dudes can flat out play their instruments including sometimes playing 2-3 instruments at a time. Ever see a dude play guitar, harmonica, and kazoo at the same time? I did Saturday night. Ever see someone play an upright bass and mandolin at the same time? I did. These guys are starting to make a name for themselves and I wouldn't be surprised if they get some notariety in the not-so-distant future. I know they'll be on the BBC network in November (hopefully with footage me breaking out the devil horns for the British cameraman). Local music seems to be the only hobby I have going outside of poker right now. I have picked up my guitar again and started playing. The show Saturday night had me learning some different tunes. I learned a couple Old Crowe Medicine Show tunes (very easy on guitar) that I can sing and strum to. So that's fun.

This evening, I would like to play some poker, but I'm not sure if I'll have time. I have some laundry to finish and I need to flush out a water cooler I scored for my house (free). I also am going to visit my parents to visit them this evening. I might just chill out with the guitar tonight. I'm having a decent day and I'd hate to run bad on the poker tables to spoil that :P Of course, I also need to learn how to "grind" when things go good instead of just doing all my extensive grinding when things go bad. I can play a session, win a lot early and I feel the need to book that win and quit. I can play the a session, lose a couple buyins quickly and I can sit and play all night long or at least until I get it all back.

If I don't play poker tonight, I'll definitely play tomorrow because Tuesday nights are poker nights for me.