Whole Lotta Canterbury
I am flying home to Philadelphia tomorrow, and mostly I wanted to get a post up saying "Merry Christmas!" to everyone.

But I guess I might as well blog some of the details of my last 7(!) sessions at the Canterbury before whatever lessons I learned during them are completely forgotten (this is all $3/$6):

Friday night, November18th (the Friday before Thanksgiving): Lost $160 over about 4 hours of play, but this loss didn't really bother me very much at all. What happened was I was that I went up $140 very quickly and was having a great time, so I decided to have a beer -- a tall Leinenkugel Honey Weiss, to be exact. Five tall Honeys later (Mrs. Cheap Thrills was driving) I was down a bit, but still having a great time . . . laughing it up, making crazy plays, joking with everyone at the table . . . it was the most fun I've had in a card room outside of Vegas. Seven tall Honeys later I finally admitted it was time to go, and vowed to make back the drunken loss ASAP.

Saturday, November 26 (the Saturday after Thanksgiving): I make my return to the Canterbury after my first loss there, ready to play tight and aggressive, and most importantly, sober. Unfortunately things are a little off, since a coworker, EL ends up tagging along. My buddy K was supposed to come too, but he backed out. EL and I end up at the same table . . . I don't like the table too much, but don't want to switch for fear of being rude to EL. This is one of several dumb decisions I make involving EL. The others involve me trying to steal a pot off EL with crappy cards, even though I know EL plays like a total rock. I end up giving at least $60 to EL through these dumb plays. I also run into set over set and two-pair AK vs. tripped KK . . . ugh. First lesson: I can make some dumb plays and still come out ahead, and I can catch some painful cards and still come out ahead, but I sure as hell can't do both. Second lesson: Don't play with friends when your main goal is to make money rather than screw around and have fun. I finished down $145.

Sunday, November 27th: Frustrated by two losses in a row, I return to the Canterbury to prove to myself that I can still win. I manage to eke out $63.

Monday, November 28th: Still not satisified, I play my first weekday night session at the Canterbury, and win $103. Was up more than than at several points. Plus there was a very good Monday Night Football game on TV. This was a very enjoyable night.

Saturday, December 10th: After a couple hours of Christmas shopping at the Mall of America, B and I hit the Canterbury around 3pm, telling ourselves we'll be out by 8pm. We leave at 9:30 -- I won all of $5 and B lost close to $100, after I talked her into playing $3/$6 (she usually plays $2/$4). Lessons: Don't play too long, and let B stick to $2/$4 if she wants to (even though I know she can kick ass at $3/$6).

Saturday December 17th: I play for way too long (about 3pm to 11 pm) and lose $140. Most upsetting because I was up $140 early on -- being up $140 is turning into some weird poker ceiling for me. Big lessons here: Don't play more than 6 hours in a session. Also, maybe think about leaving whenever I get up to $140. But mainly, I need to stop playing so loose.

Sunday, December 18th: I played tighter but ran into cold cards and some tough hands. Finished down $25.

So again, total thus far: Up $101 at the Canterbury. It's a way crappy hourly rate, but better than being down.

New Year's poker resolutions: Take my play at the Canterbury a little more seriously. Get up over $1000 and give $4/$8 a try.

Have a great Christmas and Hanukkah everybody!
posted by James at 1:00 AM