APRIL FOOLING

I've been satiating my poker needs increasingly with cash games lately. Tournaments are a couple hours of fun followed by a couple hours of bile taste followed by a short burst of bad luck leading to my ouster. I can't take it anymore. My MTT stats are actually not very good. I'm basically breaking even in tourneys while waiting for the big score. That big score has proven elusive. Meanwhile, my bathrooms are showing their age as they turn fifty this year and I need a cash infusion for the Botox party.

So I've been grinding for a few hours every day in the $2/4 and $3/6 NL games. I'm looking for steady gains with minimal risk while I build my confidence and improve my game and bankroll so that I can move up over the course of the year. My first foray to the ring games in March was disastrous - I lost over $900 which sent me back to the MTTs for awhile. Finding no luck there, I got back into the ring toward the end of the month, after a week-long vacation, and did the expected damage. I finished the month with a $2200 profit in cash games to partially offset my $3k loss in the tourneys.

So today began April and I got myself a spot at four different tables to ensure the action would be fast enough to keep me focused and not needing email or baseball updates to pull my attention. I love mornings like this one - the fridge is newly stocked as is Tivo. I brewed myself some breakfast tea and enjoyed a Thai noodle salad with the cat at my side while I watched Pensacola native Jonathan Little take down the premier WPT event of the new season. Afterwards, I went to work in the next room, investing a total of $1500 in those aforementioned tables and cashing out three hours later with a $488 profit.

Tonight, after putting the kids to bed, I got into a $3/6 NL cash game and uh, oh, nothing went right and I lost my $400 buy in. Easy come, easy go. I was playing well though - I actually stacked off with top two pair, holding AQ while my opponent had a set of queens. That's just bad luck and you've got to expect to lose a bundle on the occasional cooler. So I bought back in for another $400 at the same table and found a similar leitmotif. It was not long before that stack was gone as well.

Here's how it happened, which is our Painful Elimination of the Day: I had (Ah-7h) and Mr Big Stack called my preflop raise with (4d-3d). The flop came (7c-Ad-8d) giving me two pair and him a teeny tiny flush draw. I bet nearly the pot and he called. The turn came (2c) giving me two pair and him a wee little gutshot to go with his cute little flush draw. Again I bet the pot, putting him on some sort of AQ and looking to get it all in. He calls, even though it is clear I am married to the hand. I suppose he knows he's getting the rest of my stack if he gets lucky. The river comes (5d) and there is no way I am folding so I push all in, trying to look desperate because we both know I don't have a flush. He calls of course and pushes his stack over the $1k barrier. Again, I am out of funds, but know that I am playing good poker. He willingly took the worst of it three times before getting lucky on the river. That is how I want to lose every time.

I still felt like I had some good poker to play so I left the cursed table and set up shop across a neighboring felt. I bought in for $400 and this table was as blessed as the previous one was cursed. I was hitting top pair left and right, catching two pair on the river if needed, running bluffs through to pick up pots, heck, I even hit quads twice. The best hand was when I raised from the sb with KJ and got reraised. I called because I didn't believe him and the flop came AQT giving me a nuts and honey hand as he held pocket aces and was going nowhere. From there, it just kept coming and I finally cashed out for $1973.

Okay, so I spent $125 on tourneys in the meanwhile. I'm still holding out for that big score.