Damn Sets

Molly: That what life is. Just a bunch of moments. Most of them are lousy, but once is a while you get a good one.

"Life Stinks"

I am back to complaining about a few unlucky hands, but it's not so bad. I played a whole heap over the weekend for some bad results, but it could have been worse and I look at it as getting all the bad luck out of the way in one hit. It was bad luck, bad play and bad situations for the most part, but I did have my moments to drag a few pots and limit the damage.

For the most of it, money was lost when I had a big starting hand and bet into someone who flopped a monster – I.e AA vs A8 heads up and the flop comes 889. Ok, bit of bad luck but I managed to not loose my whole stack so that's alright. I had a few times where I had something like AK-AJ and my esteemed opponent had 89s or J7o and hit trips on the flop. I lost a few bets going for a continuation but that happens also.

What was funny was the hands I actually won, and still got blasted by some of the fish at the table. One guy in particular was so incredibly stupid that other people at the table who were not even involved in the hand were telling him to shut up. The hand that started it all was when he made it $4 from early position out of his stack of $22. I had nearly $100 as I had not been at the table long at that is a full buy in. I had AA on the button, and since nobody else had called, decided to flat call him and see if anyone else was interested. I couldn't see how all his chips were not going in the middle on just about any flop anyway, so I'm not even thinking about the short stack at the minute. Both blinds fold, so it's down to heads up and in my mind, I'm already committed to this flop. Anyway, flop comes jack high without anything scary. He bets $5, I raise to $15 and he goes all-in for the remaining few bucks. Of course I call, and he shows pocket tens which don't improve and I take the pot. Pretty standard hand right? Well, you thought wrong mister! He spent the next 15 minutes of his life telling me and the entire table what a "donk" I was for not raising him preflop. As a friend of mine put it later – "You are such a donkey for trapping me and making me look like a donkey…you donkey".

And these people play poker for money? No wonder we have professional players in the world.

A few hands later, after he has bought back in again for under $30 (why put yourself in such a position?) when I did happen to get lucky against another player (again a short stack, I hit second pair on the flop he hit top pair and went all-in for a little over $10 – I called, and rivered a straight) he couldn't control himself.

But gentle reader, I said nothing. I did nothing to feed his rage or entertain myself. Nothing to defend or explain why I played the way I did. Just a simple tag and release – though I did have visions of Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday in Tombstone which I caught a glimpse of that morning – "Perhaps poker is not your game. How about a spelling competition then?". Even if I am not able to land this fish again, there is no point spoiling the catch for another angler for some other day.

Besides that, the weekend was very busy even though I didn't get to play any live games. I did my best impersonation of a carpenter in fixing our spare bed (and did a mighty fine job too for a guy without any training or coaching, if I don't mind saying so) and looking for places to rent. Sydney is becoming increasingly hard to find affordable accommodation. I didn't play any live poker because I needed some rest after having some food poisoning during the week and ended up being as sick as I have ever been. If you excuse the detail, I was throwing up so hard I bruised my ribs. Couldn't eat for three days, and even the thought of food made me feel queasy.

Next week will be the 2 year anniversary for the Distraction and I, and the last anniversary before we become a family next year. Of course the Distraction is looking to do something special, and I will likely oblige, but hopefully she will be just as happy with her backgammon board present as I will be. It might not sound like the most romantic gift in the world, but the Distraction will love it and that's what counts.