...and ever since then...

This post again excerpted from an email to Jorgen, as I've been too lazy/indifferent lately to be into the poker blog.

Remember that thing I said at the end of my last post about paying a penance of 5 or 10% of your bankroll for reporting on a win?? Well, I've dicked off about 1/3 of my bankroll in the last week, dropping $300 at the casino on the 6th, and going broke at Poker.com and Full Tilt for about $100 on Monday. I haven't played since then, as I'm waiting for the last $230 of my online bankroll from Mansion to hit my bank account. But not playing has been good, as I was starting to really burn from all the BS cards as of late. I watched some Poker After Dark on Tuesday, then yesterday spent some time working w/MP3s and cleaning them up for the new iPod. I also found my stop loss point for live 1/2 NL, as I *hated* losing $300 at the casino on Saturday, and hated myself for letting it happen. $200 I would have been fine with, but $300 was too much. So I've found my limit...at least for now.

Saturday was sick. I lost $80 in a 3/6 game in about a half hour, while I was waiting for my 1/2 NL seat. It was some of the ugliest limit I've seen, as there were draw-outs on almost every single hand. So I sat down at the 1/2 table with my 2nd hundred and got all in w/top 2 on the flop right into a flopped flush. I was hoping to push out flush draws, but not much I could do about a flopped flush. So I was into my THIRD hundred within an hour. I eventually doubled through the same guy when my three jacks with an ace was better than his three jacks. I was deathly afraid that he had J 10 and had turned a full house in the limped pot, but I had to call with top trips, top kicker when he put me all-in. But I figured if it wasn't good, then maybe I shouldn't be there anyway.

So from there with a little more than $200 in front of me I got up as high as $365 or so three or four different times, and I should've known when I couldn't get any higher than that that I should cut bait and run, but I was too stubborn. I ended up losing all of it within an hour in about 4 hands when my flopped two pair got turned by a better two pair for about $75, my pocket pair of 10s on the button got beat by QJ for about another $75 when I thought the SB was making a stand with a $50 river bet as his blinds had been getting stolen and he was vocally upset about it. He told me I was good because of the K on the turn, but his flopped pair of Qs was good. Then I raised $15 or $20 preflop w/AQ and got a couple callers. I flopped an ace, and bet $20 when it was checked to me. This asian guy (same guy in the SB that beat my 10s w/JQ), raises me to $75. I went into the tank for a LONG time, and eventually put him all-in for another $75 because of the ridiculous size of the raise and because I figured he had me pegged as a weak player that would give up anything but a supreme hand. But he beat me into the pot and showed a flopped set of 5s. Sick. I could rant and rant about the style of play of asian players, the way they play with reckless abandon and are impossible to read, but it won't do any good. And I know its a stereotype, but its not negative. I just struggle against them as they can throw out $75 with nothing or with the nuts and you never know which it is. I just can't believe you can call a $15 raise w/55 on a regular basis and be a profitable player. So that left me with about $40, and after missing some flops I eventually got it all-in with my last $18 w/AJo. Ironically enough, asian guy and the same other guy from the AQ hand called, I flopped an ace, and when asian guy bet the other dude out of the hand he showed that he had flopped a set of 3s. Did it to me again. Just blows my mind. He basically got the last $275 of my stack, which self-tilts me so much I can't even talk about it.

So, that was easily the worst session I've ever had, monetarily, and in regards to self reflection. It showed some promise when I worked my way back from down $280 to up about $65, but I just played those three hands against that asian dude like I'd never played the game before. Monday online was just ugly. It was pure variance, as I wasn't getting cards and missing flops when I did, but when I'd actually make a hand that should've been good it just couldn't hold up. I'd flop the other card on a paired flop and come up against a bigger pocket pair, or once I flopped three kings w/K 10 limped on the button, it was bet and called all around, and then someone with pocket 2s turns a 2 and fills up to throttle me for most of my stack in a .25/.50 game. Of course when you're not seeing cards the not great hands start to look better and you overplay them, but I file that all under variance. But I won't deny there started to be a little bit of indifference, hence me taking a break here for a few days.

So I'm kind of in rebuilding mode again. The closer it gets to the Circuit Event, the less I wanna play in it, as I'd rather build an unbreakable bankroll before I take a shot like that. Plus, I don't know that I'm even playing very good poker right now, as I'm not shout it to the rooftops proud of anything I've done recently. Anyway, I'll get some money back in Full Tilt and Poker.com when I my Mansion money gets back to me and see if I can get things turned around. Plus, we've got Monday off for MLK day, so I will be getting up with the little lady when she goes to work and putting in at least 8 hours or $200 at the casino. No matter what, I will be much more careful, because it seems like whenever I'm taking a shot in a big pot, following my read, or making a hand that should win lately, I'm losing in a big, big way. I will be *extremely* focused on Monday. Anyway, if I can turn things around, get the bankroll deep enough, and get to feeling better about my game in the next couple weeks, I may still drive a couple hours down the road and take a shot at some of the $60 sats, but probably won't peel off $300 and front for a real tourney.

That's about all as of late. I'm still hanging in there with around $900, but a $475 loss in the last couple weeks certainly isn't a step in the right direction.

I've got a little bit of game theory to discuss if I become a little less indifferent about blogging anytime soon, but we'll just have to see!