My Own Worst Enemy

Blackadder: Baldrick, get the door.
[there is a crash and Baldrick enters with the door]
Blackadder: Now, Baldrick, I advise you to make whatever explanation you are about to give exceptionally good.
Baldrick: You said get the door.
Blackadder: Not good enough, you're fired.
Baldrick: But I've been in your family since 1557.
Blackadder: So has syphilis. Now get out.

”Blackadder II”

Sorry for the lack of posts of late, I have been dealing with a lot of non-poker relating things here in the real world, including but not limited to my job and organising the wedding for later this year, as well as my world record attempt which is mere weeks away.

Had a bad weekend at the tables, even if the net result was only down $20 or so. On Thursday night I played brilliantly in two small tournaments. The first was a 10 BBP tournament satellite into a $4 satellite, which would go into a $20 tournament. While it may seem a lot of work for one tournament, consider this: Top four in each of the satellites gets an entry into the next, and only 30 or so people enter them. Also it would be a good little time waster and give me something to look forward to.

The first tournament was not a problem, and I made it down to the bubble where we waited for ages for the short stack to bust. He would fold everything and then be forced all in, and then he would have AK or something hold up. Since 1st to third all got paid the same prize, I was strangely looking forward to the 3-way blind all-in once the bubble had burst. I made it past the bubble, but lost the eventual all-in in both satellites to the chip leader.

The first satellite started at 7pm Sydney time, and the second was due to start at 11pm, which means a late night for me (and on a school night too!). I was dead tired at work the next day, but knowing I had the entry for the $20 tournament, with guaranteed prize money and a small field, coming this Saturday, I was a little pumped!

The final tournament was scheduled for “1am Saturday”, and here is where I made my mistake. I put aside time to play the tournament on Saturday night, even planned to make sure we had a quiet Saturday night so I could play in the tournament. It shouldn’t be a problem, because we had nothing to do Friday night and I was so tired from the night before that I was planning on hitting the sack (NOTE: “Hitting the sack” is slang in Australia for going to bed, not some sadomasochistic pastime as some of you may have guessed) early.

And I did. I was in bed asleep by 8.30pm Friday night.

I woke up the next day, and thought I would put myself in the poker frame of mind and logged into Poker Pages to play some micro limit stuff, and I thought I would see how many other early qualifiers there were for the tournament tonight.

Now, the more astute of you would have picked up the big mistake I have already made – but I didn’t realise it for about another hour or so.

1am Saturday is NOT Saturday night. It is Saturday morning, or more closer to Friday night than Saturday night After battling through two satellites and turning 10 cents into a $20 entry, I had slept through the final tournament that was paying the top five places (fifth was $89, 1st $300+). There were only 30 or so people in the tournament too. To mock me, my absentee hand came in 11th.

I was so pissed at myself, I only played one more game of poker for the entire weekend (and indeed since). It was a $10 SNG at the same site. After seeing no cards and working my way to the bubble, I raised pre-flop with ATo, and got two callers. Being the small stack, I was surprised they didn’t try to force me all in. Flop comes T99, and I instantly push as I will not get a better chance than this. The big stack thinks about it and calls, while the other folds.

He shows QJ for the open ended straight draw, and I’ll be damned if he didn’t hit a King on the river.

That sent me packing, and I haven’t played a hand since. Work has got me so bummed that I can’t see myself hitting the digital tables for a few more days at least, and hopefully I can get something going then.

I am also travelling again for work this week, meaning I will be unable to participate in the third instalment of Scurvy’s tournaments over at Noble Poker. I may enrol just to be dead money, but it usually pisses me off when people do that so I might just have to miss it.