New Record of Futility

It was boys night out last Saturday at the Gila River. Because it was primetime, the casino was packed. I put in for 4-8 or 3-6 and the list was looong. After waiting for 20 minutes, they asked if anyone wanted to play 6-12. What the hell? Let's give it a shot.

I folded for most of the first 15-20 minutes as I tried to figure out my table. It took a while but I began to realize that most of them were pretty loose. There were not a lot of showdowns at the river, but there were usually 5-6 to the flop and one raise preflop.

As time went by I continued to get shitty starting cards. With the threat of a raise on every hand I really tried to concentrate on my position. For the first 2 1/2 hours I did not win a single hand. I think it was a record. I came close to winning twice. I had a flush get beat by a higher flush. And the second hand was Ace 5 suited preflop. I limped in with everyone and the flop came JJJ. I was in the small blind so I checked and it was checked around. The turn was a 5 so now I have a full house. I bet, and I get two callers. I'm really not liking my hand now. I decide if the next card is higher than a 5, I'm checking. The river was a 2 so I bet. Then I get raised and reraised. The original raiser had the 4th Jack for 4 of a Kind.

I tried to be critical of my play to look where I could have played things better, but I really think it was just one of those nights where I wasn't going to win. I even managed to limit my losses in hands that I could have easily blown off more chips. Example: There was an oriental woman who apparently is a dealer at Casino Arizona two seats to my left. She lost her temper a couple of times at what she thought was bad play by other players. I had Ace Queen in middle to late position so I raised preflop. She called on the button along with 3 or 4 others. The flop came out all low cards but 2 diamonds. Someone early bet and I decided to call with my overcards and she raised the flop on the button. My alarm went off and it really seemed like a semibluff flush draw raise. The third suited card came on the turn and it happened to be my Queen. Instead of betting into her, I checked to her and called her down. Not the most aggressive play but it saved me a bet.

The final loss was $222 over 5 hours of play. That was a long frustrating session.

As for online poker, I am becoming more convinced that I should just stick to the $20 sit-n-gos. I now have 29 tournaments under my belt and my roi is still 44%. The crazy thing is that I feel like I could play much better. I try to keep aggressive and not settle for just making it in the money, but it's hard when I see such stupid plays from other players. It's easy to sit back and wait for them to knock each other out.

Out of 29 I have finished in the money 15 times. 4 firsts, 4 seconds, and 7 thirds. It seems like it might make more sense with 4-5 players left to play more aggressive. 2 1st place finishes = 5 3rd place finishes. If you can build up your chips on the bubble while everyone else is trying to ease into the money, maybe I can give myself more ammunition to shoot for 1st.

My problem is the online bank roll does not seem to be going anywhere lately and I have a weekend trip to Reno coming up on Friday. I don't want to go broke.