The Good, Bad & Ugly

Interesting week really, I've booked Vegas. Good ! Played lots of poker and had decent results. Good ! Managed to get back into a zone at work where I care about what's happening. Good ! The last few nights online I haven't been playing as well. Bad ! Concentration has dipped slightly and it's noticeable when I play my hand, because that's all I can do, see my pretty pair or whatever and bet, without a clue whether my opponent will call or what it means if he does. That's Bad ! I did get quads twice last night though and doubled up both times. Good ! Then I got too aggressive post-bubble and shot myself in the foot. Bad ! The last time I smoked was 18 days ago. Good !

Last Thursday I played live with some old and some new friends. It's a curious game, notable mostly by how tight all but one of the players play. Whilst this is quite boring, it's also quite good as I'm sure a game full of rocks can be quite easily beaten by someone learning to play SLAG. The rockiness of the game is exacerbated by the most vocal player, who is also the table captain. Twice in my life I have felt uncomfortable being at a poker game. First time was playing a $60 SNG in the Mirage against a moron from Atlantic City. We split a pot where I had been ahead but fearful of a flush until the river. I was pretty pleased with the split and said as much. AC Moron said "You, Sir, have no idea what you're doing", I went on to win the SNG. This was the second time. Winning or losing, playing the hand or not this guy would comment on the merits of every action at the table. For a while I thought it was just me being the nooby player at this table, but I started to notice other people apologise to this guy if they got their money in good and he was calling on a draw. At one point I'm sure someone actually said "I hope you win mate, I'm sorry" when the cash went in on the flop with 2pr vs captains flush and gutshot draw.
As the wine level in the bottle dropped the whine level for each hand grew. It was getting Ugly. So much so it got to the point where there were comments made on every hand I played, some I overhead some I didn't. One was "F**k I was ahead, F**k, F**k." after I made a fairly standard c-bet to isolate a short stack with two overs to a low flop. He'd have lost on the river when a Q hit. Ugly ! You would think someone that good at poker would want a player as bad as me in the game. Eventually with about 20 minutes left of game time I had decided to start playing every hand just to try and put a bad beat on the guy. Not big and not clever I know. I called one of his raises after limping in EP with Qs6s. The flop was 2-6-9 rainbow. I checked, he bet 3/4 pot, I called. The turn was a K. I thought, had about the same as the pot left in my stack and shoved believing he couldn't call without a K. I had not accounted for the spite-call. He practically beat me into the pot with the words "Gimme your money" as he showed pocket Jacks. "I knew you didn't have a King". I elected not to rebuy after that, instead I dealt for the last 20 minutes, which only caused increased confusion for everyone as they had no dealer button to pass round. I was annoyed I lost solely because I couldn't later discuss this attitude with anyone else without sounding like a really bad loser, and now I have mixed emotions between wanting to return because I know the game can be beaten and not wishing to spend an evening feeling uncomfortable when I should be enjoying playing cards.

Tonight I'm going to have a crack at the new software, Rush Poker, on FullTilt with my last $9.18 on there. I'm also going to turn off the TV and concentrate on the game.