Devo Books a Winning Session!
First one since St. Patty's day. Today I made it into the Wynn to make my dialy donation at the table of torture of my choice. On the ticket today: 2-5 NL hold'em. I started out in the standard fashion, losing slowly, and never being up more than twelve bucks (no joke). Two hours into the session I had about $900 in front of me and limped on the button with the 43. The SB made it $35, six players called, and I tossed in six $5 chips. I love spots like this. The flop came great for me, Q44. The SB bet $50, everybody folded (LOL), and it was up to me. I really didn't know what to make of this bet. I decided to basically treat it like a check and made it $200. He called after some thought, and again I had no read other than the big OOP raise and the fact that he was still in the hand. He had almost $600 left, $680 in the pot. Turn 3. He checks, I put him all-in, and he beats me to the pot with QQ. Now what on God's Green Earth did I ever do to piss off the gods of statistical fluctuation that makes me so streaky?!? I mean seriously. I get cold decked so much in spurts.So, here I am, sitting with $72 in front of me wondering how traffic is going to be, because there is no way I can continue playing with this abused dog mentality, and I decide to stick it out for the rest of the orbit, and I put another $1k on the table. Two hands later, aggressive guy makes it $15, other aggressive guy calls, I make it $60 with QQ, woman on the button calls it cold, and we see a flop four ways. 2 4 5 . Check, check, I bet $200, woman with $238 left calls , and both other players call! What in the wide, wide, world of sports is going on here?!? I loved the turn card of the 4 . Check, check, I stuff my last $810 in the pot because I'm pretty sure that both early players are on some sort of draw and it really doesn't matter at this point what the woman has, so I'm simply hoping that I have her beat or she has the A K and I can scoop this pot that's already over $1k. She puts her last $38 in the pot, and both the other players fold. One said he had a pair and a straight draw, and the other said he had a small diamond draw. The woman flipped over the A 3 . AYA. You gotta be kidding me. Show me aces or kings or something. Raise and big re-raise cold with that?!? But, hints of good things came with the 4 river, giving me a boat over her wheel. Dats right.
The next four hours were spent getting even, losing a few hundred, getting even, and repeat. I took a nice cooler with my flopped top two vs. middle set and somehow managed to lose the minimum. From there I actually busted a short stack when I flopped trips, turned the nuts and got action, and flopped my first set in over two weeks also getting action. I quit after 8 hours up $351, pretty stoked to book a winning session.
This Friday Jared, Danny, three of Danny's friends from work, and myself headed out on the lake for a day of the usual, but this time my plan was to stay until Sunday. I dropped Jared off on the dock and picked up Lara and returned to the beach. I then made one last trip across the lake to drop off Danny and the three others and then come back to camp.
It had been pretty windy throughout the day and with each successive trip the lake got even nastier. On the trip taking Danny and friends back we ran out of gas just outside of the harbor and had to refuel in the 3 foot chop. We got most of the 2 gallon emergency spare tank into the main tank, I dropped them off on the dock, and I was on my way back across the lake. It was pitch black, I had forgotten my GPS in the truck, I was running on about 1.5 gallons of gas trying to make a trip across the lake that usually takes 1 gallon, and the waves had gotten worse. They were up to 4 foot breaking waves with a good 30 MPH wind blowing across my starboard side. I was by myself and taking on water with almost every single wave I took across the bow. The water was cold, about 62 degrees, and I was scared. I had my PFD right next to me. I wasn't really afraid of sinking yet, but the possibility of getting bucked overboard was very real, as was running out of gas or running aground in the treacherous conditions. I was more scared than I had been since guiding in the summer of 2005,
I made it back to the beach safely and soaked. As I dried off by the campfire with Lara it got me thinking about the grand scheme of life and how winning and losing at poker really doesn't matter. I have been very scared recently of going broke and really not being good enough to beat this game, but those fears pale in comparison to the fear that I expereinced Friday night. It was a good, humbling wake-up call to remind me that life comes at us fast and we cannot control what will happen tomorrow, we can only live in the moment that is before us right now. This is so true in poker. It doesn't matter that three months ago I was beating the 100-200 game because right now I am having trouble beating the 2-5 NL game. All I can do is play my best tomorrow and be smart with the position that I am in right now.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
posted by Devo @ 2:03 AM
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