BACK TO SCHOOL

I got schooled today on my first kid-free poker day since early June. The first reality check of the day was realizing that I've got a kid in middle school, which is sort of amazing considering I still have the emotional makeup of a twenty-year-old. The second reality check came when I realized that it doesn't matter how big your hand is, if some other player is designated by the poker gods to lord over you for a day, you can just expect him to wind up with all your chips.

I promised myself slow and steady gains during a long cash session while the kids were in school but my whole day came down to three big pots, all of which I lost. I bought in for $240 at a $2/4 NLHE table and within a couple of hours, I had nearly doubled my buy-in. I was playing ABC pretty much and when I finally got aces, I was able to raise in a spot where it looked like I could be making a squeeze play against a loose-aggressive raiser and a cold caller. I bumped it and the laggy called me, leading the other guy to believe his kings were good enough to go with. He shoved, I called, and the laggart folded, but the king came and I lost out on a $900 pot.

After buying back in and building back up a little, I got aces again and got all-in on the flop against the same player who had a flush draw on a jack-high board. He had the ace of clubs and probably thought he was in good shape, but I had him dead to clubs, so he caught one on the river to bust me. I got back in the game and lost my stack again when I raised the same guy with A-K preflop. He called with tens and spiked the A-T-3 board. I could have maybe avoided going broke with a deeper stack but I had witnessed this guy's affinity for getting his money in with the second best hand, so I just hoped he was on A-Q or A-J and in it went. Not an auspicious start to the new school year.