Okay, not final, but it’s something I’ve been pondering.
To celebrate the long weekend, I spent my evenings holed up in my bedroom, enjoying the Midtown view, listening to Soma FM, and playing some online poker. (Although sometimes imagined a ferocious feline prowler of the nighttime jungle, I’m really just a little black house cat that doesn’t know the real world beyond her own food dish. But I digress.)
I was doing really well the first couple of nights, playing mostly six-handed $3/6 Limit because I’m trying to clear a bonus on Full Tilt. I already know I’m not going to clear the whole thing, but I might as well play as much as I can now while it’s available. For the uninducted, you clear a bonus by playing raked hands, and you’re going to see more raked hands per hour if you play six-handed, so there’s the method to my madness.
Whenever things weren’t looking so good, I’d take a break and play a cheap Omaha Hi tournament for a change of pace. That worked well and kept me off tilt for awhile. Until…
I went on tilt. It happened yesterday, playing ye olde faithful six-handed $3/6. I was dealt an ace and a ten of diamonds (oooh, pretty). From middle position, I raised, everyone folded and the big blind made it three bets. Asshole! But low and behold, the flop was A-10-junk, rainbow. Thank you, Jesus (who clearly sits on his cloud in heaven watching me play poker all day long).
I called his bet on the flop. I called his bet on the turn (more junk) and he called. I raised his bet on the river and he re-raised! Nuh-uh! The river showed a four of clubs. There were no straight or flush possibilities on the board. I had him on ace-high card, and at the very worst, ace-low card, so even if he paired his low card, I’d still be the winner. What’d he have? Fucking pocket 4s.
There isn’t a poker player around who hasn’t had something similar happen to him, so if you skimmed through this poker sob-story thinking you’ve got a better one, that’s fine. Still, I’m wondering how I could have seen this coming. The book I’m reading suggests slow-playing strong hands against hands that have little chance of improving. My opponent had two outs. Two! If I had raised on the flop or the turn, a smart opponent would likely have folded. Actually, IMHO, a smart opponent wouldn’t have come out swinging with pocket 4s after a pre-flop raise and an ace on the board, but the book I’m reading may say otherwise. Anyway, I wanted to get paid for my beautiful two-pair and that ended up burning me in the end.
Things didn’t improve much after that, so I’m going to pause my bonus-clearing streak in hopes that I’ll be fresher and more awake when I pick it up again. A lot of people define being on tilt as suffering a bad beat and then letting your emotions take over thereafter, thus ruining your game. I have to say I took my beating pretty well. Stupid shit like that happens when you play cards. But I ran into a few more suckouts that day that snatched most of my allocated playin’ cash. If I’d kept at it, I probably would have at least evened out eventually, but since I’m still in the black by a nice chunk of change, I’d rather not risk it just yet.
I have another 18 days to clear the bonus, but I’m going to Spain in less than two weeks, so I’ll be drinking a glass of get-the-hell-over-it very soon, I believe.
In other news, yes, I’m going to Spain. And I need a tan so bad I can taste it.
