Coolers, suckouts, run bad with a health dose of bad play

How've ya been? I've running terribly. Like the title of the post, I've been running into nasty coolers, followed by sick suckouts which can only lead to one thing, bad tilty play. Yes folks, the bankroll's been taking a beating.

On the bright side, I did get to go play some live poker at Treasure Island last weekend. For the most part, that actually sucked. For starters, I didn't bring enough cash with me to play $3/$6 or one of the spread limit games. I'm also far too cheap to use their ATM's. Better to just blow cash at the table then pay a fee, right? (yeah, I don't get that one either)

They tell me it was packed Saturday night because Johnny Rivers was playing and he's a big draw.Who knew? Never the less, the wait in the card room was annoyingly long.I kept asking about starting a new table. There were easily enough people on the board to do it. Staffing was a problem. Sigh. Eventually, they did start one. I had been waiting for a friend from work...he too was running late. Omens should be heeded.

My table seemed fun to start. There's a guy that reminded me a lot of Eddie Jemison, 'Livingston Dell' in Ocean's Eleven. He told stories of his dad gambling it up. There was a lady next to him. She claimed to be from Las Vegas. She lived there, you know. She also explained to me that there just weren't live card rooms any where any more. Really? Did they all close up since December? Well, she said, "...there might be one or two. All the rooms on the Strip are just automated machines." I must have drank far more Sam Adams then I thought. I could have sworn Teddy "KGB" and I were playing with real cards at the Flamingo.

It was fairly obvious, I was the only sober guy at the table, but this didn't stop it from being the most loose passive limit hold 'em game I've ever played in. I tried tight aggressive for a while. That was both boring and totally ineffectual. I started talking about wild games I'd played and started open raising with hands like 10 8s. Of course it won. Duh! Well, that was the last hand I won. I had done a great job of establishing myself as a loose maniac. Now all I needed to do was hit a hand.

I tried to really stir the pot by asking to do a live straddle. Let's see what the table was made of! The guy on my left seemed like the gambling kind to. When I asked the dealer about straddling, he told me he had thought of doing the same thing on the previous orbit. I suggested he double straddle. Maybe we should even cap it blind. This made several people at the table openly skiddish. He didn't straddle, but it didn't stop 6 other people, including him, to just call my opening $4 straddle.

Wouldn't you know, I had AKo in the hole.I made it $6, no one folds and I watched a lovely selection of medium cards come...2 crubs. Since I'm not CK, I know crubs never get there for me. I had one of them, but runner/runner is not my favorite drawing pattern. I raised, everyone calls. I check he turn and the river cuz it's pretty obvious that of couple of these people have a piece...yep, the dude on my left paired his 8. He wasn't folding. He wasn't raising, but he told me he was surprised I didn't raise. He had hoped to call me all the way down.

So that night pretty much sucked. Tight/aggressive doesn't work against 8 loose/passives unless you hit your hand and loose/crazy as your table image only helps when a card or two fall your way. Bummer.

At home here, Rush poker has dominated my online time. I had a really great first part of the month. I ran it up. Then in the middle, followed this pattern most nights. Fold, fold, fold, little pot, little pot, fold, fold, AA vs 10 2s - he hits trips on the turn...we were all in pre flop...sigh...stacked. Reload, fold, fold, fold, KK vs A3o - all-in preflop. A on the turn. Stacked. Reload. Start splashing chips around, Flop the nuts. River makes me the second nuts, still get it all in...stacked. Sigh. Chase some more. Swear a little. Rinse, lather repeat.

Poker can be a bitch some times.

I'm about to make Iron Man for the second straight month. Kinda cool, but I doubt I'll do it again. I really just don't like playing that hard, every day. I need to play some sit-n-go's once and a while and not make many points. That's much more my thing.

I'm gonna share with you one hand from tonight how ever. Really kinda wish this was for more money. I was playing the super micro $.05/.02 Rush to kill a little time and lose a small amount.dough. The way the hand played out, I was pretty sure this guy had either hit the boat or the ace high flush on the river. I'm guessing those teasing raises were met with, "you idiot, I've got a boat. Ha! Look at this sucker betting his flush...oh CRAP!"

Being on the delivering end of a cooler is way more fun then getting them. I just wish I'd get to do it a little more often. I was beginning to think I could never win a hand. Tomorrow night is Bourbonators, aka Whiskey Club. Looking forward to it! Hopefully, I'll remember to post something about this month's booze. Hopefully.