Super Quick Update

Ok, since I promised I'd try and be a good blogger, here I am!

There isn't much to say other than I'm essentially running in place from a poker standpoint. I tried to go broke the last two nights, only to cash in my "last" SNG and end up right about where I started.

I'm still getting sucked out on as a big fav. Very very early in a SNG I played on Monday night (like <5 hands in) we had a three way all-in by the turn where I held the nuts (a straight), and the other two fairly obviously held TP (dead), and the flush draw (of course). I was pretty happy to get all the money in with these two as an 80% favorite, then the spade fell on the river. In another SNG I flopped top pair and bet the pot on the flop and turn against an obvious flush draw, only for my opponent's flush to fall again on the river. I feel like this is a circumstance of the level at which I'm playing. Some $5 and moreso in $10 and up players will correctly fold that flush draw to the turn bet, not getting their 4:1. But not at the $2 level. Flushes and open-enders are gold. I also experienced the inevitable PF 70/30 beat when I got all my money in as a shorty w/A4s, got called by A3s, only for him to flop one spade and runner another couple.

I also can't win a coin flip. My favorites are the ones that have to get ridiculously dramatic. One time I got all-in w/A10s as a shorty and got called by 9s. Flop came Xd 9 5d, so he flopped a set (ridiculous enough), but I was still in the hunt with my flush draw. One time, right?? Board pairs the 5 on the turn filling him up, and my flush comes home on the river, just for a stern kick to the junk. Can't we just have me pair up or not pair up? Why all the drama??

The thing I'm really starting to hate the most about all this is the level at which I'm playing. If me and the other 9 players at my tables sat down and took a "poker test" of some sort, I'd wipe the floor with these fuckers. But yet when we sit down at a table to play some cards, their horrific play is being rewarded left and right like *I'm* the bad player for making the right plays. Not even necessarily always against me, but when they mix it up its like in middle school when the guys at the end of the bench played basketball at halftime while the A teamers were in the locker room. Sure, it was basketball, but it was a bastardized version of basketball. And for the record, I was one of those guys, so there's nothing wrong with it. ;-) Bets mean nothing, so you just have to hope they call you down on their draws and don't hit. Kickers mean nothing, so that takes a majority of your bluffing opportunity away because they'll often call down or even raise with TP, any kicker, and sometimes even worse (Last night my flop bet got raised OOP by K10o on an AKx rainbow board. I folded my A9, and the dude w/K10 won the hand. Now you tell me...in a $2.25 SNG, is that 2nd level thinking, or me giving too much respect to a completely idiotic play?). Check-raising is GOLD, and they'll wait for as long as it takes, so you have to watch your ass when trying to pick up a seemingly orphaned pot on any street. And pot odds?...what are pot odds?? Essentially, if a $2 SNG donk is in a hand preflop and flops a pair or draw, they're going to the end with you. So you just have to hope you can get a read and extract value, but moreso you have to hope that the deck is kind, which for me, it is not, so I am toiling in complete and utter misery.

I never knew how well I had it when I was sitting in $10 SNGs and playing some real poker. There was 3 or 4 of us who knew what we were doing that were picking off the donks. Now I'm toiling in a virtual poker gene pool where I show up at a table with some skills and a little bag of tricks, and just get brow-beaten by the ESPN age of preflop and flop tournament players. Under normal circumstances I make adjustments and let the deck do the rest. But the deck isn't doing the rest, so I just have to play as well as I can and hope for the best.

So yeah...not a lot has changed. Hopefully I'll work in a couple of SNGs tonight, and then Saturday I've got a RIPE 1/2 homegame to play in that I'm almost dreading, because if I show up at this thing and get destroyed like I have been for 5 1/2 months now, I'll be dumping money in a place where I definitely should be walking away with 4-5 times my buyin...and that's just plain depressing.

Hope the rest of you are living large. I'll check ya later.