Bourbonators - I gotta watch the temper when I'm tired

The March gathering of the Bourbonators was last night. 10 runners showed up for good whiskey, and good times. I believe the theme for the conversation can be summed up by one thing: truck stop hookers.

A gathering of this many married geeks can only lead to so many conversations. Once we run out of jokes about bad programming practices and make fun of illogical operators, the conversation usually turns to truck stop hookers. What else?

Another month past and the lady's of the diesel jungle didn't show up, but some how, cards were dealt and booze was consumed.

The first SNG we played was fun. I somehow doubled up with pocket queens on a board that had an ace and a king. No one calling my raises either preflop or on the flop had one. Weird. I didn't even have a set. Just a pair of queens. This gave me enough chips to just coast for a long while.

I was actually feeling a bit tilty all night. Work-tilt was getting to me. Not that there was anything wrong at work, we had just been dealing with a serious situation all day and I found it very difficult to de-stress before the cards were in the air. Spending 9 hours straight trying to solve a big problem and running into nothing but security problems all day can leave you a bit on edge at the end. And when the TSHs didn't show...

I played a little small ball, but mostly just stayed super tight. This somehow gave me the chip lead after the bubble and I just stayed there. Nothing tricky, nothing fancy, just pushing hard with good cards and folding bad ones.

The second SNG seemed to start a bit later than normal. I was getting really tired. The guy hosting had just bought this house and all the paint was fresh. I'm not sure, but I think that really contributed to my itchy, uncomfortable eyes. Oh, and the exhaustion...I was really friggin tired by this point.

I folded every hand from the beginning to about level 5. Yep, folded every one.

We lost Darrin with an I on the very first hand. Flush on flush. I'd prefer to watch a little girl on girl, but again, they didn't show up. Not long after, we had lost the second one. The second SNG always seems to start very loose. Thus, I chose to play the opposite.

The first had I played, I moved all in. I had 5 BBs and just didn't feel like waiting to put the rest in. A limper or two were in the pot, so it seemed appropriate. The very next hand, I had A7(?)c. I was still getting comments about having folded for the entire tournament and figured I might just try it again. This time, I didn't push and held back a little. I got one caller. I paired my bottom card on the flop, we get them all in. I was really tired by this point. He turns of KK. Sweet! The Ace on the River sealed his fate. Oops. I actually got lucky! What a cool feeling.

With a fresh infusion of chips, I went back to folding. We got to the bubble and that's where everything in my head finally mixed and ignited. On the bubble, the BB was all-in for less than the LB. UTG had called and the button folded. After calling the minimum, I only had 3900 left in chips. The blinds were 500/1000, not exactly the stack I want at this stage, but with AJ in the hole and no chance for a raise, I gamble and see the flop. I miss, but the UTG player puts out 3900. I lost my temper and said somethings I wish I hadn't, but my read was, he was pushing me off the pot cause he figured I didn't hit. It was all low cards with 2 spades. I really figured him for 2 spades. But in tournament poker, you can only hope that people won't fire at a dry side pot. I laid it down, but not before acting a bit like a jackass. He turns over AK spades. He had the nut flush draw. Of course the turn and river were both jacks, no spades. Ace high held. I'm sorry for saying somethings that were inappropriate. Two hands later, I pushed the 3900 all in with AK. The BB called with KT. Of course, the 10 came. I go home a bit buzzed, really tired, and a few dollars richer.