Not My Day

My birthdays have always been more grief than not and today was no exception. I should have known better when Phil Hellmuth tweeted he busted today. But while busting at the casino tonight, it was still a lot of fun and a first time experience that has to come sometime. All part of my pursuit of a life of reckless abandon. Not to mention most of my losses were covered by Fire Keeper's Club points earned because it was my birthday. Misao made a card too but didn't gamble. With her birthday points we can enjoy a meal at one of their better restaurants in the future.

Took an unusual high percentage of pots in the beginning but they were very small with only five of us at a new table to start. Maybe hit $70 in my stack. Ace to 5 straight with an A, 3 off suit on the small blind, if I remember correctly, my best hand of the day. 2, 4 on the flop and a 5 on the river. Then the table started filling up.

My one flush for the night was with a 7, 2 of diamonds on the big blind. Three diamonds on the flop and I raised. Then another on the turn. Heads up I checked he raised and I folded. A good read because he had the Ace.

Saw an amazing number of pocket pairs. At least a half dozen and none higher than nines. Only the nines paid. Nothing on the flops, all high cards, and folded to raises on all the others. I would have had nothing on the turns or rivers either. Again good folds.

I played mostly tight but still all bad flops for my A, J's suited and A, K and other suited high cards. Tried a few marginal suited hands not on the big blind looking for some action but again nothing on the flop.

All in, heads up pre-flop after one raise. I decided my 9, 10 of spades heads up were the best odds I would see with only a couple of blinds left in my stack. The other guy had Q, Q. A ten came on the flop along with an 8; three clubs. A Q on the river and it was all over after an hour and a half.

Next step. Study a few books and more websites. Schedule my Internet play so as to limit my time investment, working the freerolls and any other tournament I can get into. Some at the table were saying you can play for money on the web. Not according to what I've read. But I pay for a legal service so I might as well ask them. It doesn't cost anything extra. Particularly what I can do with cash I may win in a freeroll. Can get to the top 10% in most freerolls, which typically top over 5,000 participants. It's having a stack to work with when you get that far that has been my problem.

Wont be seeing the casino in the near future. Maybe take those cans we've been saving for years in someday and try again. The Omaha Hi-Lo games are $3-$6 stakes. I may have done better there. It is the Omaha and heads up hold'em games where I have built most of my play $ fortune on the Internet.

Of course if I finally get a full time job there wont be much time for Internet play but with extra cash I may still hit the casino once of month. And with a proper starting stack, 100 big blinds, I think I'll... have lots of fun. And I believe I have a high potential to come out ahead.