MAJOR LEAK...one of my many...

3-15-2010

Made it over to Harrah's this past Saturday and had to drive around for a bit as the parking garage was closed, but after about 10 minutes of looking for off street parking I head back over and it is opened.

I do not claim that I am the best player but I know my way around the poker table and have had success over the last six or seven years but I discovered a MAJOR LEAK this weekend that I need to get pass or it will eat me up!

Let me tell you about my day leading up to my major leak. I love to brag on the good things I have in life, not to the point of being an asshole but just so that I let folks know that life is good. I have the most wonderful wife ever. I know that those of you out there may seem to think the same thing about your wives, I hope you do, but I would like to share some reasons behind the rant. I am trying to act my age but still feel that I am still working on getting over being 21! I still play video games, stopped collecting comics and action figures due to space constraints and trying to grow up , but if I had the room...shoot, I would be doing it now! I love poker and have cut the playing time back considerably. My wife allows me to play Call of Duty 2 Modern Warfare (If you play look me up...Goondingy is my x-box live account), if I want to get on-line to play some poker, no problem. She backs me, as she is the CFO of the family, on playing poker at the casino. When I get home from work, a hot meal is ready for me and my family. She is a clean freak and has to clean the house, in stages , weekly. So I come home to a clean house, daily. She somewhat enjoys doing laundry but again her favorite thing to do is cook. She takes care of me in every way! Me and the kids are her priority.
So, I am able to provide the necessary tools for her to do what she needs and we were able to pick up a new washer and dryer from BEST BUY this saturday. The one in Metarie did not have the one we wanted but it was at the store on the Westbank, so I borrowed the truck from AT@T and rolled over to pick up the washer and dryer, this was at noon. I get back we unload and start to set up, it is about 2pm now, we picked up lunch and got through that, now it was time for the set up. At about 7:30 pm we finished...very frustrated but finished and my wonderful wife was HAPPY! That is key to a wonderful marriage, keep them happy. Now my wife and I knew that I wanted to play today as the following weekend I would not due to work commitments and some family outings we would be doing this coming weekend. So at about 6pm, I felt tired and even told myself..."SELF, you may be too tired to play today."
I made it clear that we would work through that because the DOCTORS were in town and they wanted to give their money away.
I got to Harrahs and into a game by 10:15 pm. I do a decent job and at about 5:30 am my table breaks and I am up two and a half buy ins. I was not at full alertness and they gave their money away I did not have to work too hard for it.

JUST LEAVE RAY, NOTHING ELSE TO PROVE AND YOU PADDED THE BANKROLL THAT MUCH MORE.

"Seat left on 19, Ray." The floor informs me.
"I'll take it, " I respond. I take my winnings to the cage and sit down with a buy in.
There is a good bit of money on this table as well so I am happy I made the move. They do not seem that strong, but I have an aggressive player to my right, to my left, two passive guys in the 9 and ten seats and probably the strongest player in the two seat who has about a grand at this point. I am in the seven seat.
SIDENOTE...Of course I see this guy snap guys off to put over $2500 in front of him the next two hours, it was fascinating that he caught the set on the turn because of the weak flop bet. How he did flop a king high flush when he was re-raised by a newbie lunchbox and got two callers behind the re-raise so it made the decision easier for number two seat to call the re-raise of two extra bets. The flush comes the lunchbox bets the two behind fold the two seat MIN raises and the lunchbox shoves with J 9 off suit, oh the jack was a diamond which was what the flush was on the board. If was amazing watching a guy get slapped in the face by the deck and have other players make moves into him and get it broken off in them!

I digress, I am at this table for ten minutes and under the gun has limped in...young caucasian, sitting back in his chair with less money than myself but enough to hurt....foreshadowing...I am in early late positon, right after the under the gun player and I make in $15 to go with Q 9 of hearts...

LOOSE AGGRESSIVE guys do stuff like this I should not! First mistake!

It is me and this guy heads up. The flop comes out 9 6 8, with a club draw. He checks and I fire out $40, trying to make any draws pay the price. He contemplates and calls.

SO HE LIMPED IN, CALLS THE RAISE, WHAT DOES HE HAVE? POSSIBLY 7-10 SUITED, A9 OFF OR SUITED, 5-7, OVER PAIRS? NAH, HE WOULD HAVE RE-RAISED ME OR HE COULD, BUT HE MAY HAVE RAISED ON THE FLOP THINKING I WAS BETTING WITH THE FLUSH DRAW. SO I THINK HE MAY HAVE A SMALL PAIR AND BELIEVES I AM BLUFFING.

The turn brings the six of hearts. He checks again and I bet $80...he contemplates and shoves all in. CRAP!

THINKING BACK HE COULD HAVE 68,69,NINES, EIGHTS, SIXES OR AN OVER PAIR OR HE COULD BE MAKING A MOVE ON ME. I DECIDE THAT HE DOES NOT HAVE A FULL HOUSE YET OR THE SIX FOR TRIPS. HE SEEMS LIKE THE GUY TO WANT TO WAIT TO THE RIVER WITH THAT KIND OF HAND TO GET MY MONEY. HE MAY HAVE AN OVERPAIR, BUT AGAIN, RAISING PREFLOP WITH 10'S OR HIGHER IS APPROPRIATE FROM THAT SPOT OR REPOPING WHEN SOMEONE HAS RAISED SO YEAH IT IS POSSIBLE HE HAS AN OVERPAIR BUT I DON'T PUT HIM ON THAT...SO A SEMI-BLUFF OR PURE BLUFF IS WHERE I AM.

"I call," I say after about five minutes of agony.
"Good call," he says and turns over the K 7 of spades.

I AM NOT OUT OF THE WATER YET, ANY KING (THREE POSSIBLE OUTS) ANY 10 (FOUR POSSIBLE OUTS), ANY 5 (FOUR POSSIBLE OUTS)...SO HE HAS 11 CARDS TO HIT THE RIVER TO BEAT ME. I DID GET HIM TO PUT IT IN WITH THE WORST HAND BUT I CAN STILL BE BEAT.

This is somewhat funny, there are some ohhs and ahhs about the call and when the dealer turns the river, the two seat goes "Dang, that's poker!" as she turns over the 10 of clubs. Not a bad beat story but where my next mistake was, I STAYED. I should have gotten up and left with the 70 or 80 I had in front of me for an overall win of at least one buy in. NOOOOO! I can get it back, shoot this guy put it in bad against me, who else is willing to do that. Well, he was willing to put it in bad but he did it against the kid in the two seat. I went against the kid in the two seat and bluffed him off the pot, probably with a weaker ace. It was hard to read him so I had to go off of betting tells and the way he cut his chips, it was weird to figure it out but when he had it he did a certain thing when he did not he did this other thing, very subtle but I caught it and played one pot with him and won. That was the last time he and I played and I watched him decimate everyone else. It is about 8 am and I am TIRED! My eyes are hurting and I am snoozing between hands. Not the way I like to play...but I want my money back. I now have my entire, come to casino limit, on the table and that has widdled down. I get it back to at least a one buy in win for the day by 9am but continued to play...very tired...another mistake. I eventually watched all that money go away as a guy made the nut flush on the river by making some bad calls to get there. I am down to my last hundo but I still continue to play...now I am embarrased and upset with myself for sitting down and opening with Q9...another mistake and my last as I berrated myself and gave away the last hundred. I even got more money and playe with that until 11 am and lost it as well as a lunch box hit his flush, with 3-6 suited from middle position, after limping and calling a raise! I hate talking about bad beat stories so I will not tell the tale. I should have left after the first beating and now I have taken another.

I left beating the hell out of myself, but the root cause was I got too greedy! This is a huge leak that lead to others like playing too tired, making bad moves out of position, making moves with AK into a bad board. I know what I did but writing about it should provide some therapy for me as I felt embarrassed at that table when I knew I was one of the better players there but did not act like it. I need to fix this leak and I hope I do but if you take anything away from this, get your rest and play until you have hit that wall, do not force yourself through...pick up and come back later the game will be there tomorrow or the next weekend or so, believe that, beat yourself up about the small loss instead of the bigger one that you may cause that I caused myself.

RANDOM RANTS:
I saw Tex in there playing his ass off doing work. He got on me about my Steelers hat as we are both Cowboys fans. I also so Joe "The Grinder" doing work as well. He is always happy and fun to talk to. I also saw my bud LT, we met back in 2004 or 2005, when he started playing 10-20 limit and eventually played 5-5 no limit as well. I used to pound the snot out of him, now he is playing the 2-5 game with at least 3k in front of him, he's doing well and I am proud of his growth. Heck he rags me about my game, which has helped in some regards. I used to play Ace off from any position, he broke down the reasons not to and was disappointed that I played that bad. Thanks LT.

So you went through my embarrassment with me and I hope you learned something...I have, now I need to apply it. Stay nice as rice and mello as jello!