The Ones You Can't Get Away From
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Wow. It's been my first losing day in a while. I won a Heads-Up SNG against a stranger, but then lost to GCox. Fiance Kim had just come into the apartment after her long day and I felt like a jerk putting poker before her. But I don't like to give away money so I decided to play fast. I had a J in my hand and the flop had an A and J. I pushed, and G called with his Ace. I deserved it for rushing, and G played well overall, so I'm not making excuses or minimizing his amazing accomplishment (I am a HU pro after all). I'm still 3 for 4 SNGs since yesterday, including a win over TripJax, which is no easy task.
The rumor mill has it that we may have an 8th and 9th challenger in the Heads Up Challenge. Please feel free to encourage DuggleBogey to join. The other person is a friend of GCox's that goes by the screenname PorkChop Fin. That is one funny name. Plain and simple.
Now, on to my miserable losses. I lost a $20 Rio at Noble. I lost 2 $20 NL buy-ins at Absolute. This morning I lost about $20 on one hand of 1/2 limit alone. I also bled chips playing two simultaneous distracting games on UB last night, Crazy Pineapple 8/b and Omaha 8/b. Both were limit. Oh well.
Two hands stand out. In one, I hit a K high flush on the river. I had a KcJc, to complete the flush. My opponent had a Ac7c. We both caught runner runner straight. Damn you flush!
In another hand, I had AQ in NL. The board was KQQ/A/X. He had KK. Doh!
These are the hands you CANNOT get off of. In both cases, you know you don't have the nuts, but the chance that the other guy has the nuts over you (that sounds gay) is VERY slight. With the flush, there were already 5 flush cards I knew of (2 in my hand and 3 on the board). It was a runner runner straight, so he wasn't playing to the flush post flop. There were 8 remaining flush cards, and I didn't expect him to have 2, let alone 2 flush cards including the Ace of clubs. It happens.
With the full house, I had him on a K, or maybe an A. Hell AK is another possibility. I was hoping he caught a straight. I didn't expect he had one of two combinations that could have beaten me (KK or AA). But that is poker.
It doesn't phase me much, which is good overall. I miss the calm waters of Noble, as compared to Absolute, which I find to be a bit...odd. Its nothing particular, but I haven't gotten comfortable there yet. The user interface is a bit too busy and confusing. The players suck, but have been catching. This will change. It must.
UB continues to suck. Its a decent site on paper, but I hate their lobby interface. Its too busy, like a webpage with splash pics and articles. Screw that. Let me see the poker rooms. I don't need your articles. I need your poker. Crazy Pineapple is a hoot, but I wasn't catching cards there. (Why am I using "hoot" so much?) If you don't know Crazy Pineapple, picture three card Hold'em, where, after betting on the flop, you discard one of your three cards. You only have to use one hole card (or none) like Hold'em, rather than Omaha. However, I think you need to use both to hit the low. The interesting part is deciding on going high or low. It's a real headtrip, and can be a lot of fun if you feel like goofing around.
There you have it. I probably lost $100 or so in the last 24 hrs. No harm if I keep my head level about it.
I also received my red-felt poker tabletop courtesy of Poker Source Online (referral code TripJax or GCox25). It will be used this Sunday at the 5-Diamond Invitational Bounty Poker Tournament. In other bonus-whoring news, I'm working toward the Poker Tracker through Absolute, so I have no choice but to stick around there for a bit.
That's all for now. I'll write about my poker-filled week later today, so stay tuned. Pokeriffic!
posted by Jordan @ 9:39 AM,
