Bloggers know best

Pyro : They say you're the bad guy.
Magneto : Is that what they say?

"X-men 2"

It is unusual for me to start of a post with two quotes, but here is the second quote from the comments section last week:

Party will fuck with your mind.

ArturiusX

And that's just what it did. Have a look at my weekend: Friday night, trying out the $25NL tables (yes, I finally found them) and I had two tables going, doubled up on both and was ready for bed. I took time out to calculate all three websites I am now playing on to see how my total bank roll was looking - over $171, and I was happy let me tell you! I can not remember what hands I won with, but they were not monsters. Most of the time it was top pair or something like that. I tried my luck at some $5+1 SNG but to no avail. Extremely cold cards, and when I had not played a hand in 3 orbits, I was dealt pocket 6's and was happy to throw it all in from middle position. Naturally, the button had pocket aces, and even hit one first on the flop to rub salt into my wounds. Oh well, but a positive night all up.

Then comes Saturday. I am going well just on the one table (I found two table very hectic, how the hell does everyone manage 4?) and moved my stack to $39 plus change from a start of $25. I have the button and I say to myself - well, I get 4 free looks without paying for blinds, I will only play something worth while then stand up when the blinds come around, that is enough for today. About three hands later I am dealt pocket 10's, not too shabby. I raise it up a few pre-flop and get two callers, one very new to the table. The flop is 668 rainbow. I raise it again and get a caller from the new girl and one fold. Turn is a harmless looking 2, river is a 4. What does she have? 6-7. Trips on the flop. I was kinda annoyed and now I was down to where I started, so I thought I better hang around so at least I make a profit - a decision I know refer to as mistake number two. A few hands later I am dealt the Hiltons and the same thing happens. Pre-flop raise, she calls and then the flop is a harmless looking 773. This time she raises, I can't believe it and in full tilt mode I go all in. She calls, and flips over pocket Aces. Man, I was fuming - and because I knew I brought it all on myself with my little "oh, lets just stay for a few more hands" tactic. I was hurt, bleeding I tell you. Why, the poker Gods giveth, and they taketh awayeth through the mask of a vixen, clad in decent and bathed in lies. I mean I really can't be too disappointed, as like I said it was my fault and I was playing with other people's money anyway. Before this, I pulled out my initial deposit of $105 and decided to bonus whore it elsewhere - and now my party account sits at less than dollar after I went into a $20 SNG in full blown tilt mode - I was lucky to finish seventh! I would reinvest the $105 back into party, but the incentive is not there when I can get first deposit bonus else where. I decided to go through with poker Source Online's offer of a free deck of KEM cards with Absolute Poker - although it seems bloody impossible to find out how many bonus points you have earned already and how close you are to winning the bonus. I had a quick poke around, and really the only game I played was a heads-up against some other guy with a $5 stack each. Man, this guy was weak and I pushed him off the first 4 pots to take a commanding lead and I never looked back. Pretty soon, my stack was $9.60 and his none, so 40 cents went in rakes but I guess I was happy with that. I even made a few more dollars on Aloha, though I think I will stick to the MTT there for the moment.

Saturday night was another chance to test my live game at another Aussie poker enthusiast a few suburbs over. This was my second time here, and I really enjoyed it - I even feel like one of the boys now. There was another new player that they got into contact with from the same website as me I presume. It was $15 6-handed, with the winner getting 3 buy ins, 2nd getting 2 and 3rd getting their money back. One o the other new players, still very much learning, hit three rivers in a row to take down fairly large pots. Mental note 1 - you can't bluff new players. I remembered this, so I no longer tried. 3 hours into the game, the first player was knocked out. Wow, that took some time since last time I was in this game the first player bowed out after 4 hands or something similar.

Shortly after this I made a big move against the new player they met off the internet, who seemed to know what he was doing. On a ragged bored I made a massive raise of $7K and he had to agonize over it for ages. He even said fold once, but then reconsidered for another five minutes and called. He had a pair of aces, I had bugger all. Damn, that would have put me in second and it was very close. A few hand later, when I thought I was short stacked, I went all in in late position, after a few small raises and I was dealt KQ. The new internet player thought about it and asked me to count my chips - shit, I had $28K (start at about $30K, we like to be high rollers), a lot more than I thought. He thinks about it, and there is only one other person to call after him, and eventually he throws his stack in. The last player, a pretty good player and big poker fan also calls - shit. The internet player flips over KJ (phew!) and the other guy flips over AA (Fuit. That's "fuck" and "shit" all together. Fuit!) Six cards in this all-in, and all six of them are face cards. What about the flop? Two more picture cards straight off the bat - a beautiful King and another Queen. The rest were rags. Wow - it was a hand we talked about for the rest of the night. I tripled up and left the good player with less than the big blind, which he was out next hand when he was dealt 52o. With a run like that, I was sure to be headed for good things.

Forth placed went without any help from me, then a few hands later I checked my big blind and let the flop come for free. It was JJ2, the internet player went all in and I called with KJ - he showed a 2 and that was it for the night for him. We were down to three.

With the guarantee of profit for the first game now, I was feeling ok. After a bit of back and forth action, I called a minimum pre-flop raise and saw a flop of Axx. I bet, the host raised all in. Could I ask for a better result? I flipped over the Rockets for the win! What better way to scoop up a $30 profit than with the rockets, hey? In the second game, I again made it to the heads up but it was now 2am and the play was very solid, back and forth time and time again. Getting sick of it, as everybody was, I went all in knowing that even a loss here would still mean a small profit (and in some way, since I was a visitor I didn't want to win both games.), all I had was Q2s - my opponent had A3s would you believe. The spades were irrelevant, and he hit an Ace on the turn for the win. All up, I came out even on the day considering my online losses.

The biggest damage though was to my confidence, as the cold card run and bad play left me wondering if I should just pull the online bank roll out totally and buy something with it - after all it *was* free money. I don't think I will, but pretty soon I will be sick of Absolute Poker and more than likely have a look at Pacific Poker and use the sign up code from JW at Outkicked and see how it all pans out. I might go back to Party one day soon, after I clear a few more bonus', but for now I will leave the Aquarium having had a bit of fun.