What with my allergies and asthma wreaking havoc with my body (smokers - 2 words - quit now! OK more than 2 words - it's a filthy, stinky, disgusting habit and it will, not maybe, not might, but will have a -EV affect on your health - I'm an ex-smoker, I know whereof I speak). I left work 15 minutes early with nothing but curling up on my couch in a fetal position and feeling sorry for myself on my mind. I managed to fall asleep and get some of the sleep that forsook me last night. I woke up after a couple of hours feeling slightly better and a little motivated to play some Friday poker.
I logged in to Pacific and joined a $1/$2 table and quickly realized that, although I was feeling better, my mood had not improved - I was yelling at the cats, my girls, my precious furry girls. But I played some hands, won some, lost some, hopped tables, even jumped down to the .50/$1 tables to see if they were as soft as the $1/$2. But my bad mood made me impatient and put me on the verge of playing some bad poker - I was about to move from being the fisher to being the fishee.
About that time I was checking the tourney line up to see if there was another guaranteed low buy-in multi this evening. There was a $15+1 $10,000 guarantee. On impulse, and against my better judgement, I bought in. Jeez, I was still grumping at the cats, my headache was coming back, what in begonia's name was I doing entering a mega tourney? To cap it all, while I was waiting for the tourney to start, I browsed through some blogs and got all upset again at the blog wars going on. I have some thoughts on all that, and maybe I'll post them, and maybe I won't or maybe if you give a hoot, leave me your e-mail in a comment and perhaps I'll share it with you in private. The point is, I knew this was going to make it difficult to play a good game, and I considered pulling out.
I didn't, though, and the game started. Once again, the software glitch prevented me from taking my seat at the start. I clicked the damn seat button a truckload of times and finally I got seated - down the small blind. Note to Pacific this is not a good thing. Doncha' know this just cheered me up tremendously. And of course I proceeded to get a slough of crappy, dog-breath, kick-you-while-you're-down cards. My stack got whittled away to about half when a hand came up I played that I didn't care whether I won or lost. In fact I was kinda hoping I'd go out so I could just curl up and wallow. But no such luck. I won it and doubled up. Shit, can't get a break when you beg for it. Damn. I was forced to focus on playing cards now. Muscle memory. Addiction. Thrill of victory. Intoxication. I was being drawn in. More cards. More hands. All-ins. Doubling up. Busting out - not me, I was busting other people out. Jesus, Mary and Ralph - I'm playing poker.
I made it to the first break with an average stack. About 145 (out of 524) of us remained. The money started at #50. I was determined now to make it to the money. Get to 50 for at least $50. The cards froze up. Mediocre, not even marginal, hands were coming my way, making it difficult to even steal blinds. The stack was wasting away to the blinds. Then an AK came my way. By this time I'd been whisked to a table to the seat on the left of the current chip leader. Oh great. I needed a pot. Hell, I needed to double up to insure making it to 50. I raised all-in. The guy on my left called along with 2 others which included our chip leader - the table bully. Arrrgh. I won the pot over the guy on my left who had AQ. We were both ridiculed for going all-in pre-flop with those hands by a guy who I'll have a tiny more to say about later. The turd.
I was flipping back and forth from the table to the lobby, feverishly checking the stats, watching the numbers dwindle 91, 86, 72, 64, 55, 55, 55, 55, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagony. We were in slow motion. Molasses slow. Dead snail slow. One .............. by ............ one .........we crept to 50. I threw away some playable hands - dang I was not going to jeapardize my chance to get to the money - no all-ins on pocket 88 this time (not even tempted - no 88 came my way). 50 came and I announced "We're in the money!" 8^) I was now guaranteed $50. Now I had to see how far I could drive this taxi.
The second break hit and, knock me down, Mary, I'm at #15 out of 29 left in the race. My mood improved. People were falling off the rolls fairly quickly now. I concentrated on playing good cards, but it was still difficult being downwind of the table bully. I knew he was stealing with crap. I managed to back him down a couple of times. I took down a decent sized hand and could now smell the final table. I brought myself back to the moment. Play this hand, this table, this moment in time. I was sitting with a better than average stack - now almost even with Table Bully - and I'm whisked away to another table and am staring down at pocket AA, Rockets, American Airlines, Bullets. The big ones. I raised 1 1/2 the big blind. One caller. I am blurry on what the flop was, and I can't get a history just yet, but either on the flop or by the turn, two Js were showing. I called an all-in, I believe. This all went fast. He had JT, I believe and I was gone in 26th place. I don't think there was any way I was going to get away from that hand. I made a mistake by not pushing harder either pre-flop or on the flop. Another lesson learned.
I'm happy with my finish. $70 in my pocket. And it cheered me up. I tell you, though, getting in sniffing distance of the final table in a tourney that large is a heady thing. Does one ever get used to it?
Oh - and the guy who was so snide about my all-in on AK pre-flop? He placed second. Dang.
