OVERDUE

Just when I thought everything was going great, I had a downturn for the ages. I went several days without cashing and even when I got involved in cash games, I was just getting hammered. There is nothing more frustrating than losing money at cards. When the money is coming, everything is as it should be, but when the money is going, I begin thinking I am not a wise man. The last thing I want to be is a guy who fritters away money at the tables. I played single table after single table after single table and never could get into the money.

Today, I went over to PokerStars for a change of luck and played two $100 heads-up matches, and lost them both. I am not playing bad, just mired in a no-win week. I decided I wasn't going to give up, and I signed up for a winner-take-all $100 sit-n-go at PokerRoom for a ticket to the $1000 tournament tomorrow. Sure enough, variance came through for me, and I won the ticket. I played great. The only suckout - and it was a monster - was when I had an M of about 10 (my stack was ten times the cost of playing a round) and I went all in under the gun with AQ. I ran into AA and managed to flop a Q and hit another on the river. I'm not upset with how I played it though, because I was only a big underdog to a large pair, and with only five other players, what were the odds of that?

I can see the silver lining in the bad streak, because by the end of the week, I had determined to stop going to war armed only with small-to-middle pairs. Too many times I was getting all my money in with a pair of sixes. They are only good for stealing blinds late in the action. I am now a guy who folds 44 to a raise. As the week wore on, I was making smarter decisions, so I'm glad it finally paid off with only hours to go to get into this Grand Tournament tomorrow. My mother-in-law will be here this weekend. She was here when I won my ticket to the WSOP, so she brings luck that will get me to the money tomorrow, hopefully the BIG money.