Tuesday, April 18, 2006

On a roll

I haven't had the time or energy to blog lately. And I haven't had much to say about the state of my poker game because I'm not sure where it's at. It might be evolving. It might be sliding ass first into Signor Donkey's Third Circle of Hell. You know, the one where you lie in mud as torrents of shit rain beat down upon you.

Here's an amazing fact: I've bubbled the last three Group tournaments on Stars. The first two resulted from decks gone cold. Last night's can be attributed more to sketchy play. No major donks, but misreads/misthinking throughout the night collectively cost me a decent amount of chips. (Side note: I did flop quad aces last night. That's right ... quad aces, beeatches. Too bad I had about 16 chips at the time.)

Poker's been somewhat of a mixed bag. Bonus whoring effort (200%) at Absolute has gone nowhere. Cold cards and nasty beats at $1/2 limit ate through my deposit with alarming speed. No limit, mostly .50/1 on Titan, has continued its upward arc. There's some bad poker being played on that site, folks. Not much challenge, but profitable. And I've booked a couple of winning sessions at .50/1 on Stars as well.

But with the demands of life and work pressing and the days growing longer and mercifully warmer, poker ambitions appear on the wane. I played my first round of golf in almost five months on Sunday and am eager to return. Hit the ball remarkably well tee to green but did my Robert Duran imitation with the putter. Hands of stone. That's to be expected, though, after a long layoff.

Golf was once a major obsession, and all of that time, effort (and money) resulted in me being able to play a little. But the last 2-3 years have seen a diminuition of skills as I've played appreciably less and practiced not at all. In the meantime, golf has not gotten any cheaper. I've started to think of those $50 greens fees as the fully amortized cost of a future college textbook.

Poker, at least, represents some earnings potential. That's easier to type, of course, when the bankroll is sturdy. But overall, I feel pretty good about what's starting to develop, especially with my tournament play. Things seem to be making sense. I'll likely continue to concentrate on tournaments in the coming months when I do play (and of course I'll play some -- I'm a low-limit junkie, after all).

In fact, I just busted out of the Wil Wheaton tournament on Stars. At least I didn't bubble. Actually, I made the final table, finishing 8th out of 98 runners. Down to an M of about 5 and the short stack, I called an all-in with pocket 7s. She had just gone on a mini rush and I believed I was ahead. And I was ... slightly. An ace on the flop paired her A-Q and no miracle arrived for me. Played well with the hands I got and made no major mistakes. I'm not displeased with the effort.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Maybe some of the bubbling may be related to the fact this blog has made you a prized pelt in poker games. (Maybe Mark will write about me if I bust him!!!!)

I'm still savoring the fact I got you to bet into my trip Aces - particularly when you announced beforehand that you thought I was bluffing. $6, but still, I turned the blog teacher became the pupil!!!

1:50 PM  
Blogger CC said...

Congrats on the final table--I was 98th in that particular tourney...
You may want to invest in Wilson Turbo or Poker Academy simulation software to work on MTT's. Should be part of the arsenal.

3:36 PM  

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