Day Ten: I can't win all the time

15.5 hours, -$593

Friday 2:30pm: I decide I’m going to hurry down to the poker room before all the Friday afternoon traffic clogs up the freeway.

2:45pm: Apparently rush hour starts about noon now. I’m in for a very unpleasant drive.

3:45pm: I finally arrive at the card room and go on the board for the $200 NL game with $3/$5 blinds.

4ish: I get a seat in the game.

4:30ish: My lack of discipline is already showing. There are much softer tables here and I am only now getting a move.

6:00pm: So far I’ve lost with KK three times. Doubled up a player who limp-called with AA. Folded to a limp-caller when an ace flopped and he check-raised. Folded with an ace came on the turn and a player bet. It didn’t help that due to a dealer mistake I wasn’t allowed to raise out of the big blind.

There’s the distinct possibility that I’m playing too timid and constantly being bluffed out. But given that when an ace flops, I’m much more likely to have AK-AQ or AA (27 ways) than KK-JJ (9 ways), I don’t think it’s likely my opponents are betting without an ace.

7:15pm : 25s checked in the blig blind. Flop 34X rainbow. All seven players check. Turn: 6. I bet, am raised by a late position
player and go all in with the second nuts. I lose to 57o.

8:15pm: Player goes all-in blind for $200. Early position calls. I push all-in for $300 from the blind with AQ. Caller ends up winning the pot when his AT flops two more tens.

8:30-9:40pm: I get all in with big pocket pairs preflop and lose to 65, T5, and

1. All to the same player.

9:40pm: Normally I only bring $1200 to play poker. Today for some reason I brought $1500. I’ve lost it all. I’ve also lost a $100 of general spending money. Not long ago I would never been able to play well after that, and would have been best served by going home. However, today I have a lot of confidence that I am playing well and just getting unlucky, and that I can continue to play well even now. If I had some money.

9:41pm: I get $400 from the ATM, and make a mental note to have my daily withdrawal limit raised.

10:55pm: I have JT on a KQ9 rainbow flop. I get all-in against K9 and KT for an $1100 pot.

11:10pm: Chips are flying on this table, but I have more than I can comfortably risk in front of me, and I am covered by a player who is alternates between crazy loose (all-in blind pre-flop for his first six hands) and loose-aggressive, smart and dangerous play. I decide to change to a much less profitable table, with the intent of coming back later with only the $200 I’d be allowed then.

2am-ish: The crappy tables are difficult to keep full which makes it difficult to get a table change from them. I finally get back to the crazy table with only $200 now. But on the hand before I get dealt in, the drunk, crazy-loose, old, white idiot gets into a huge altercation with the instigating, young, Mexican idiot over whether or not he reraised all-in.

The floorman takes the dealer’s word over two bystander players and awards young idiot a huge pot. Young idiot gets a twenty minute timeout for word choice, ignoring his threats of violence, racial slurs, and other insults. Old idiot is escorted out by security because he was not going to stop arguing his point, loudly, and with lots of stabbing of the index finger.

Impressive, but really doesn’t compare to an incident I once witnessed involving a crutch.

Nonetheless, with those two out, the table is suddenly unprofitable and breaks soon.

2am-7:30am: My cards are horrible, I’m frustrated, and I’m not adjusting well to the live ones on the table. I finally get up when there are no live ones left.

I sweat a 5/5 pot-limit, heads-up, mix game for a while; Omaha8, double-flop Omaha, 2-7 triple draw, and Badugi.

I manage not to sit at the $5/$5 blind no-limit holdem game, despite how juicy it looks and the fact that I’m still stuck. Instead I drive home and count my money. What’s left at least.

Morals to this story:

I can withstand losing more money than ever before without tilting much. This is probably because my confidence is a lot higher. Consequently, I should carry more with me, because days like today do happen and I should be prepared.