"Football Season's Over, Let Poker Season Begin" Post Marred by Painful Loss
I was all set to write up a big post that's been percolating in the backof mind for the past few weeks. See, I took the whole month of January off from poker, and the weekend after the Super Bowl was gonna be my triumphant return to the tables. I have this pet theory that lots of casual poker players will fill their weekends with poker now that football season's over, and that the weekend after the Super Bowl should be very +EV. (This theory is predicated on the shaky assumption that lots of people are like me.) Unfortunately, losing money at the tables tends to sap my will to blog.

The weekend started off well: Friday night I won $160 playing $1/$2 Hold'em and 7-Stud at Paradise, plus another $40 from a $2 multi-table tournament (I was up til 6am . . . totally screwed up my circadian rythms). Unfortunately, my return to the Canterbury Saturday night did not go as well: Dropped $350 in my first go at $4/$8, so I am now in the red at the Canterbury for the first time since moving out here. Doh! The tough thing is that I don't think I went on tilt or strayed from my usual game. I thought my table was quite beatable, which is why I rebought halfway through the evening. So was the loss due to variance or does my usual game need serious work? Some of both, for sure, and the lack of sleep couldn't have helped, but my cards were pretty rough. Two pair losing to a set was the big theme for the night. Sigh.

Oh well. I don't like to whine, but right now I am tired of tying to decide whether I am total fish or the poker gods just decided to kick me around for an evening. Gonna have to get myself centered before I take another shot.

On the bright side, the tables I played at were perfectly pleasant, with none of the obnoxious behavior that was really starting to make the Canterbury less enjoyable for me back in December. B also had a small win at $3/$6, although she did run into one asshole. Some 20-year-old puke got upset when his AQ lost, and accused B of trying to see his hole cards. He actually said the words "you cheated," so she pretty much tore the guy a new one, telling him to protect his hand and watch what he accuses people of, and he ended up apologizing. (She's a lot more confrontational than I am.) On the way home she was still fuming, to the effect of "I kinda wish it was the old west and you could shoot a guy for saying something like that." But we both agreed that the worst behavior at the Canterbury is still nothing compared to Foxwoods.
posted by James at 2:22 PM