Retribution

Melvin Smiley: Technically, you can call me a hitman.
Keiko Nishi: Really? A hitman? Does that pay well?
Melvin Smiley: Oh of course. I make a killing.

"The Big Hit"

Welcome one, welcome all to the written word of the "World's Greatest Poker Blogger Ever." And since that term is catching on like wildfire in an asbestos factory, I'm going to add a new monikor to my profile - "The King of the Freerolls!". Sure, I've only won 2 and placed in a few more, but I consider myself the KotF because I can, really. WGPBE and KotF - I can see the merchandise now...

Lucky I'm so awesome at poker blogging, because I was getting my ass handed to me at the tables. I was down 4 buy-ins I think on the $25NL tables, and they are just brutal. Twice I busted out to runner-runner flushes, and once when I had the nut flush I lost to a runner-runner straight-flush. Brutal. Just Brutal. To rub some slat into my wounds, at a full table one guy sat down with $5, one fifth of the maximum and most common buy in of $25. That's not much room to move, and sure enough he pushed on about his fifth hand. He doubled up when two queens hit the flop and he was holding AQs. Pretty soon he doubled again and now was about where everyone else would be when they started. 45 minute later he cashed out for $105. The only hands he won were all-ins. Unbelievable streak. Some of it was just pure luck (AA getting smacked by his 77), while other times players were hoping his luck would die and go all-in when he held AA-KK and so on. Not a bad effort, 21x the buy-in in under an hour. Tournaments don't even let you do that!

Sick of the losses, my party account was now down to $77 from it's original $160. I thought about it, and obviously every one else is far too lucky at those $25NL tables (I mean, it wouldn't be my play that was causing me to loose, could it?) and obviously there is a problem there. So I set myself the challenge of 3 $20 SNG to either win back some of my losses or just about cripple the account all together. Sitting down at my first one, I mostly folded my way as the first four drop out. There are a couple of smaller stacks that I hope will bust soon to bring me closer, but damn it both of them double up off the big stack. This leaves me at $455, well below the average of $1600. I can't remember exactly how it happened, but the cards started to fall and I was able to bluff people out when I thought I knew what they were holding. Perhaps my reads were just getting luckier even if my cards were not. When heads up, I made a great move to slow-play the nut flush and get four to the board to make his King high flush pay me off. He is now below the small blind, and after he wins the first automatic all-in, he looses the second. The $100 win gives me back the majority of my losses thus far at party. Perhaps I should stick to the SNG's? I decided I had enough poker for the day and let it go for now.

A few hours later, naturally I reconsider. I fire up Ultimate bet, and regular readers would know that I am on fire in their SNG's. So far it is a second and three firsts. Why not go again I say? a $10 SNG this time. Very interesting game, nice people too and no real idiots so it was fun. After the first few drop out, I am getting slaughtered and win very few small pots. I am way down yet again, coming last out of the six left. I get pocket Tens. Well I say to myself, this is it. I push from UTG and it is folded to me. Ok, I guess my tight image is working. Next hand, AQs. From the big blind, I push again against 2 callers, and again it is folded. Hmm. I get QQ not long after, push, fold. Nice. They let me get back up to $600 before somebody finally called my all-in. This time I had AJs vs 99, and I got both a jack and an ace on the board. On one hand, me in the BB I am dealt 83o. The small blind make a raise, and I call. The flop comes 725 rainbow. I make the minimum bet, he thinks and call. Turn is a T, I make the minimum bet, he thinks about it and then calls. Yep, we're dealing with overs here (or he is slow playing something...). The river is another 2, and again I make the minimum raise. He folds. How weak is this guy? My bets were screaming weakness, I don't think I played it very well at all. But I guess he never paired up at all, so a fold might have been the right move from his point of view. I thought he might try a re-raise, which I would have folded to but never mind. Eventually we whittle it down to the money, and then I am heads up with the massive chip leader - $7500 vs $2500. On the first hand he raises from the small blind. Is this a steal attempt? Lets find out. Sure, I only had K6s, but they we're suited! I re-raised all-in and sure enough, he folded. I never looked back. I took the next 6 pots, of which I think 2 made it to the flop. Eventually he went all in with A6 when I had A9, and neither improved. Nice little earner there also. Ultimate Bet has now become my SNG haven.

I did try a pot-limit tournament at Pacific, but I guess it just wasn't my tournament today. With two spades on the board, KJs went all-in and I called with my flopped set. The third spade came on the turn, and that was it. No board pairs and I'm out very early, about 180 out of 260 or something equally un-remarkable. Oh well, what can you do?

So all up I am nearly back to where I was before I made my first withdrawal. The balance sits at $476. I finally received the check from Neteller, and the bank will have a freeze on it for 21 days before it is made available to me to spend up big on - which is not as fun as it sounds since the wedding costs for next year are already being tallied. In the end the conversation rate was 78.9 cents, and it too is frozen to the day I deposited the check. I get home that night and the dollar has moved to 77.2 cents already. DAMN YOU! That cost me about $1.18 right there! How can I work under these conditions?