OUTTAGE

I haven't won a damn thing in a week but last Friday I had an interesting tournament. I was in a $150 event and doing well with over $10k, several thousand dollars above average, when the power went out. Marci stepped outside to see if it was just our house or the entire neighborhood and she came back inside screaming about green lightning shooting from our roof. There were heavy winds and apparently we had ourselves a livewire.

I called the power company and played up the danger element, not because I was frightened but because I wanted to get back into that tournament. About forty minutes later, the crew showed up and I explained the situation. When the foreman heard that I was in a tournament, he lit a fire under his boys and started recapping for me every event he has played in the past six months.

When power was restored, I told him not to drive away until I gave him a status report. By the time I reset my modem and rebooted the PC and established connection and opened the application and all that, I found myself holding J6, all-in on the big blind with 104 players remaining. I ran outside to tell the crew that it didn't look good, but at least I already made the money, which started at 150.

So I came back inside only to find that I won that pot with trip sixes, actually I split it with Stuart Patterson (thedonator) who also held J6. I still had life so I went all in with my next hand, K6, and beat QQ to get me up to $4500. A few hands later, Stuart, who was on my right, was short-stacked, even lower than me, and he pushed UTG with a ragged ace. I pushed over the top with J9, knowing I was gambling, but knowing that Patterson didn't have much of a hand and just hoping nobody behind me did. Stu showed A7 and I flopped the joint - T87 - to knock him out 93rd and bump me up to a respectable $14k.

The next hand, with no donator, I was on the big blind, and I got AQd. It folded around to the button who put in a raise. I instantly went all-in. I had just shown K6 and J9 so I didn't doubt that he was calling with any above average hand. He did think quite awhile but found it irrestible and called with KQ. This pot put me at $29k and I began to think I was destined to win. I actually got all the way up to $51k before losing a pot and finally, I busted when my AK fell to 77. It wasn't the magical final table appearance that I was looking for but after missing an hour of play, I was okay with finishing 41/1067.

Since that night, I have been bleeding money. I haven't cashed in any event and I dropped nearly a grand in cash play yesterday. I bought in four times for $240 and three times I went bust holding trips. The fourth time, I was a little too anxious to play a big pot and I couldn't imagine my AT was not the best hand, three-way, until he showed AJ.

Today, I bought in three times for $600. I swear I have lost thousands the past two days on river cards that fought the odds. Yesterday, I lost a $1200 pot when it all went in on the Ad6d5s flop. One guy had an ace and put some money in, I had trip sixes and decided to take the pot down with an all-in check-raise once the third guy appeared to be drawing, only to be called by the flush draw who must have realized he could only win with a diamond. When the turn didn't fill me up, I knew it was over and was barely surprised when the Kd rivered. That's right, he didn't even have the nut flush draw.

Today, I had a similar feeling when I got all in on a flop with plenty of action. I had AQ on a QTx flop against a guy who loved playing the big pots. I pushed in and he called instantly with KJ. He could have also caught a king but it was an ace on the river that cost me the pot. I went down two buy-ins before tripling up my third buy-in after some hands held up. I finally won a coin toss with AK v JJ and I even coerced my foe to call my preflop push with JTd when I held AA. He had a ton of outs on the river but thankfully missed. I turned that final $600 into $1970 to actually show a small profit on the day. Whew.