Any 2 will do...

This game is really beginning to tear me down. Somewhere along the line I became a lousy player. Somewhere along the line I've begun to believe that the collected wisdom in every poker book I've ever read is all a lot of horse hockey! Play tight...play top hands...be aggressive...win the pots...be the best. Phooey! The only strategy frankly that I'm seeing win lately is no fold 'em hold 'em. Join the "any two will do club, and we'll show you the fargin' secret handshake!" WTF!!! Let me back track a bit.

Friday night, I went over to Bob and Cassie's house for poker. This was made up mostly of the guys that Matt J plays with all the time. Stakes were theoretically "lower" than what Matt was used to, having only .50/1.00 blinds. After 6 hours of play for me, I lost only $20. Considering that I had been down $120 at one point, I actually didn't feel so bad about it. But then the next day, start talking to Matt, and hear what everyone else was cashing out with. I knew who was donating the vast majority of it. The guy who was in for nearly $1,500.00. Yes at a .50/1.00 NLHE table. He dropped that much! Matt cashed out up over $300. Baker about the same. Bob was several hundred more than them, but he played on and put the biggest loser in a cab that morning at 6:30am. My big loss came on a crappy hand...and I knew it, but after sitting there getting sodomized for around 2 hours, and having not had a playable hand...and having not won a single hand yet, well frankly it's a wonder I didn't go looking for a gun. I had more chance of walking out of there by holding the place up, than playing the shit hands I was seeing. But I decided to play 8-9, since it was like the best hand I had seen for the night. I raised preflop and thought MAYBE someone was actually paying attention and that I hadn't made a move like that all night. Well they had ALL noticed. But didn't friggin' care. Any 2 will do, remember!?! Carl called with A-6, and after the flop, when I had actually hit a pair, I pushed but being the big stack he inst-called. And the 8 on the turn, which gave me 2-pair, sealed my fate, and I pushed the rest of my meager stack into the middle, only to watch him turn over his 6, having met four cards to the straight. What're you going to do. Matt said I was too tight. But I'm not sure what I really should have been playing at all now. I mean, I could play 8-3os, and 9-4os, and any manner of other crap that I was seeing, but that's wrong isn't it? Besides I tried to keep track of what was falling on the board, and in that first hour or two, I would have only hit on one hand, that I would've made a boat on. The Q-2os would've hit...and except for that $10 preflop raise, and me folding to it, well shucks, that pot coulda been mine. What the fuck was I thinkin'!!? But maybe I'll run better on another night. I got my next chance the next night, when a BUNCH of us headed up to the Eagles to hear the band JINX. Some of us started playing cards there. And later on played at my house too. I lost $4 total that night... Low stakes, low expectation. There's always next time. So this morning I find myself (on my day off) at home and firing up Bodog again. The morning session dropped me just under $30. Now I'm hovering around the $100 mark again. As I said before I hate this fuckin' game! It's just never going to pay off is it. I should cash in right now, shouldn't I and just call it an exercise in futility!? I mean, I'm not really even enjoying the game anymore. It used to be lots of fun...I used to make some occasional money at it too. No more though, no more.

I'm in the middle of playing right now...and it's not the big hands which are working at all. The preflop pot size raises aren't working...with my big hands. Everyone calls and I mean everyone. What's paying on the other hand and I just took down I nice size pot, and sent some poor shmoe to the rail, with a starting hand of 5-6os, which I played just because the whole thing is makin' me ill. I made a boat by the TURN. I bet and he raises me, and I take him down, and he's got an Ace with a week kicker. Did he think I was just kidding? But I didn't complain. I needed it. I really feel like I'm playing SLOP POKER. There's no style or finnesse to it. Just limp in on everything including your big hands and get away from 'em if they miss. Then just hope to hit a monster with your crap cards, and pounce, always of course avoiding the guy on the small or big blind, who will invariably hit the absolute nuts by the end of the hand, despite that he entered with the absolute worst with it. It's a given. I've been beaten on AA, by a Q-4os, QQ beaten by K-6, when he hit trip 6's on the flop. There have been other bad ones too, but they just make me cry to talk about. now (keep your fingers crossed, I've made back like $6, but it's not likely to last. I mean I'm playing everything but the kitchen sink, regardless of position. Yeah here it comes...I've got JJ from late position...raise and reraise preflop. I got out, knowing I was beat, but the guy who had me beat with his rockets...just got spanked by the guy who had the pocket 10's. All-In preflop and that's where they ended up, the guy with pocket 10's turning into a set! I do hate this game. Numb nuts at the table says "10's are just FEELING really lucky for me." OHHHH, how wonderful for you DoucheBag! Glad I got out...made the good laydown, but criminy!!!

I'm just going to be really sad when I have to stop playing altogether, when the money finally runs out. What am I going to do with all of this time. I invested a lot of time and effort in to attempting to get good at this game. Wasted effort and time I suppose. Enough of the wallowing in self pity. I'll end this post and promise to post next time about the other happenings of this weekend. One word for you all...CROWN!

Regards,

cheer_dad