Ugly - Off to go see little bro get hitched

Wow. I was so sure I was going to end the brutality tonight. So I popped into a double shootout to the Sunday mill, which I'm positive I can beat on a good day as historically the play has less than impressed me. I was chipping up nicely, very confident in how I was playing and then ...


The server crashed. PokerStars never crashes! What the hell! So after 15 minutes of failed login attempts, I finally get back in and shortly thereafter they announce all tournaments are canceled and I get my buyin + a small 6$ bonus for having a few extra chips. That kinda takes the wind outta the ol' sails.

So okay, I'll go try another 10$ 9-man SNG. I'm going to keep trying these until I drop my bankroll below a pre-decided number which I won't share because it's embarassing that my roll has gotten low enough that I need to be thinking like this.

So I start nicely, don't really get any big hands until I find 44. The chip leader (luckbox) gives off information for free and only 20 hands in I have 7 or 8 lines of info on him. He makes an offsized raise from EP, which until now had indicated weakness. I was in MP and jammed for 1200, thinking I'd steal, and willing to race if he called. OTB called AND EP raiser called, and it was AK vs A4 (OTB..lol) vs my 44. The board bricked out (despite putting a 4-flush for A4 out on the flop) and I doubled and some. After that it was just taking lots of pots till we got down to the bubble... Yes, the dreaded bubble. It's nailed me the last 4 times I've been here...

So I have ~4000, our EP player from earlier has ~4000 also, and the short stacks have ~2000 each. The play is very tight, and after a lot of stealing, I work my stack up to 5300, chip leader has 5800, and both shorties are down to ~1200.

I had to pick THIS time to get my hands...

Here's the first one.

Hero is dealt QQ in the CO. Raises to 450 (Blinds are 75/150). This is my standard raise at this point. BB (big stack) calls. Flop comes out 89T and I give a little fist pump. BB checks, hero bets 600, BB calls. Turn is a 6. I don't hate that card, but I don't love it either. BB checks, hero leads 1400. BB takes a second, and jams for ~3000 more, and has me barely covered. Now despite the piles of notes I had on him, he'd never made a check-raise. I'd seen a lot of his bluffy plays, and this didn't line up. After running my time bank almost all the way down, I decided to let it go... Not sure how I feel about that.

The VERY NEXT HAND, I get the BB, and hold Ts7s. The villain from last hand, now the SB completes and I (out of character) check. (I'd been stealing a lot earlier from SB in situations like this.) The flop comes off T87. Fist pump. SB checks, I lead 400 (400 pot), SB min-raises. His min-raises could mean either weak or strong, so I decided he was on a OESD, or a KT-JT kind of hand. I throw my chips into the middle with a smile on my face, I've got a good feeling about this one.

Villain turns over ...




J9.

Another bubble, I feel like a bloody moron, and I would love nothing better than to dismantle this shitty Sony laptop into tiny little pieces. Unfortunately for me, I have to go to bed.

Another well timed vacation. Hopefully the blood vessels in my eyes will calm down soon so I can see colors other than red.