Leaky boat

Misery loves company; some company you love giving misery; and some company loves your misery. Throw in tilt to one or all of those circumstances and well, you've got yourself a friggin' party! Unfortunately, I was the one tilting. It's strange I tend to recognize my own tilt (not that I always respect the fact and do the right thing, but I do tend to recognize it.) We had some people over on Sunday to watch the football games and play some cards. We opted for a cash game, as we didn't have many players at the moment and there were others supposed to be showing up later. No one else showed. Unfortunate, as we could have used some fresh blood in the game. I ended up dropping a quick $20, and then another, and finally another, although I think I got some of that last one back, but at that point it was moot. The pivotal hand of the night for me was likely one against JR. I even saw it coming. I could only put him on 3 hands, and two of them had me beat, from the start. I called his raise (as did Big Red) preflop, when I looked down at pocket 10's. The flop came out 10-J-Q. JR fired again, Big Red had that look of calling, so I called it too, with my bottom set. Note that I would rarely refer to a set as anything like "bottom." This had that feeling. Hair on the back of the neck, cheer_dad's about to take a screwin' kind of feeling. The turn brought an innocuous 4. The betting and calling continued. The river brought that 4 a brother. Now, not only am I looking at a set but now it's gone and turned itself into a boat and a nice looking one, I might add. But boats come in all shapes and sizes, and some barely even keep out the water. Mine was of the leaky variety as it turned out. I ended up reraising JR for my all-in to get called. Together we turned over our hands, tentatively on both counts. Seems neither of us was brimming with confidence. Of course the board could have supported quads, but neither of us had that. The question then was who had a better boat. I had my 10's full of 4's and he had his J's full of 4's. We both had reason to be concerned. There are however those hands that you know you should, but just can't drag yourself away from. When the evidence is staring you in the face and still you look down at the 4th nuts hand and just can't bring yourself to lay it down, cause it's just too damn pretty. That was it for me. There were other hands, and more money and losing that I did but I'd already seen monster hands, that didn't hook up at all. But those hands no one was getting to see, and I was meekly folding them. But I can't tell you how many times I saw AQ in suited and unsuited varieties get busted, by lesser hands. The same went for AK and some other various pocket pairs. It was just one of those days.

The bad beat came later though when the argument with Big Red ensued. Remember back to when I said I recognized tilt in myself but didn't always do the right thing? This was one of those times. I was an ass. And she let me know it with both barrels. Harsh, but true and deserved. I've since apologized and hopefully move forward from here. I never claimed perfection, I'm far from it. I indeed have my moments, and this was just one of them. Trust me there will be more. At any rate it's water under a long, dark, scary bridge and I'd like to leave it there to flow on down the river. Don't bring it up, don't remind me of it, I've had better days.

On the lighter side, we will be playing NDPT #1 on January 23rd, and I hope to see you all there and ready to play. Especially since I've got to win back some of the $60 I lost. : )

Anyway, today the kiddies are back to school and have basketball and cheering to fill up the night as well. Tomorrow I head back to the workplace. I'll have a new boss by then. Maybe you've heard of him... Barack Obama? I think today he was having himself a pretty big day.

Regards,

cheer_dad