Junkie

Sometimes PLO can be a painful game. But it makes you think more so it ain't a bad thing. What is a bad thing and painful is the new Guns N Roses disc, Chinese Democracy. I put it on as I played Dr. Pauly's tournament today.

I wish I hadn't.

It is a steamin' pile o' crap. Axel sounds like a dog being castrated. Slowly. The screeching he calls singing is hard to listen to. I had to put on old Guns music to make sure he didn't always sound like that. Nope, he didn't so why did he wait 17 years to sound like shit?

Now I really need to focus on the game to get that awful noise out of my head. Some Trans-Siberian Orchestra should help.

I bled some chips early chasing a nut flush and gut shot straight draw. I got those chips back on the next hand when I bluffed the river. I figured my opponent missed his flush draw and could not beat a pair of aces. Half pot bet took it down.

I then fold a lot. Cards aren't coming my way. When I do get something decent I get 3 callers to my raise and a flop that makes it ugly for me. I know I can't bluff every hand so I will be conservative for the first hour and hope it works.

I get my chance when I call a raise with A Q T T ss. I flop a set and get it all in against just a pair of jacks. That boosts me up nicely to 2850 and a position to once again pick my spots.

That works until I piss away my chips just before the break. I miss the flush on the board and bet out. I am drawing dead on the river and am down to 700. That sucked. Just a stupid play on my part. That is what I get for not paying attention.

At the first break I am in 18th place with 20 remaining. 12 people got bumped in the first session. Still a bit tilty because I should be in the top ten if I hadn't screwed it up. A little Tom Sawyer on Rock Band has helped though. I had one move and that is all in. Hope to get lucky.

I do just that with A A J 2 ss. I get called by a bigger stack with QQ. I flop an A and it is over. I just about triple up. But that means I am back to the starting stack. Quite a bit of work to do. Time to get aggressive. With 9 T J Q, I just limp to see a flop. 8 J A. I lead and bet pot and the other 3 fold. Small pot but I will take it.

I then put myself into a terrible position. I call a raise from Ingoal who is UTG. I have J J T 5 ss. Flop comes A Q 3. He checks so I do as well. Turn is a 9, giving me some more outs. Now we bets only 300. I sense he may have KK at best, maybe a set with A A. I decide to put some pressure on and make it 900. He immediately goes all in. That plan didn't work. I have only 580 behind. Pot is at 3300. If I am lucky I have about 14 outs. I figure reality is I have 10. I don't like my spot here. I type "crap" in the chat. I then proceed to type "this would be a suckout" in the chat and make the crying call to see I am up against K K. But a K spikes on the river to give me the straight. The suckout has occurred!

The cards force me to sit back and find another spot. I fold most of the time but pick spots to steal the blinds. Floating at the same chip level isn't fun or exciting but I must remember how to survive in tournament poker. Being impatient has been my downfall as of late.

Being patient doesn't work either. I run into a bad string and am a victim to a turned straight. Oh well.