There's no worse feeling in the world than that heart dropping feeling that washes over you the instant you do something, or say something that you immediately wish you could take back or "do over." It's like you possess a separate brain which is in sole charge of the "Oh-No!" department and catches the wise brain off guard.
This evening I played some poker over at Pacific, mainly to begin to get familiar with the program before the WBT on Sunday and to see what kind of players are over there. I deposited $40 and got a $10 bonus, which was immediately dropped into my account. I liked that. I joined a $1/$2 limit table (I didn't see NL tables, which is curious) and within about 15 to 20 hands, I'd doubled my deposit. I changed tables when it slowed down a bit and ran my bankroll up to over $100. I dropped back a bit and then got it back up to over $100. Every table in the lobby list had flop percentages of well over 50% - incredible. There's some good fishing to be had over there!
While I was playing, a scroll across the top was hyping a $10+1 $10,000 guranteed multi at 9 pm (central). I was tempted and decided to play. Blinds started at 10/20 and increased every 15 minutes - this was going to be a fast tourney, relatively speaking (ended up with 693 entrants with a limit of 1000).
Tourney time rolled around and I was victim of a software glitch - I couldn't get seated for the first five hands. I was about to get really spissed when my table finally came up. The blinds had already nicked my stack - I was at 770 when I sat down (they start you at 800). The hand had started and I had a Q-3 in front of me and I was on the button. The table folded to me and I decided I wanted my blinds back so I raised and got them back (a review of the game history - which is a nice feature by the way - it will replay hands for you, showed me that in my first 7 hands I was dealt a Q four times).
Once I got my sea legs and was able to settle in a bit, I started playing some good poker. The table was a fairly easy read - there were many weak plays and I did my best to take advantage of that factor as long as I could. I was transported to 2 or 3 more tables in pretty quick order, which was disconcerting...but I managed to keep my head and focus on reads closely when I landed at a new table. I won 17% of the hands I played and I do believe I was 100% on showdown until...hand #76. That's the one that in the hindsight of a nano second later I said "why didn't you just call and see the darn flop?"
The blinds were at 200/400 and I was on the button with pocket 88 (the second pocket pair I'd seen, thus far, the first one also 88 which I folded on the flop, only to see I would have taken a nice sized pot down with a better full had I stayed) and T-3668 in my stack. It was folded to our table chip leader Mr. "Texass" (that's how it was spelled, I swear) with T-8134 in front of him. He limps in and the next two fold to me. I thought a moment, but not very clearly. I don't know why my thought process failed me at this point. I believe I was starting to get antsy and saw this as an opportunity to add $1000 to my stack. I didn't even try to put "Texass" on a hand - I figured he was attempting, weakly, to claim the pot. He hadn't even been at the table for a full orbit, but his stack size should have given me a clue that this was not a weak player! So, I raised all-in in order to scare everyone out of the pot. Boo - back at me, I sensed immediately before anyone else did anything, this was a mistake. The blinds fold and "Texass" calls. When the cards were done rolling out - Q73J7 - he rolled over pocket JJ for the full house.
If I had just called or even raised minimally, his subsequent action could have given me far more information for me to act accordingly. He slow-played those JJ pre-flop and I didn't consider that. My goal was to get in the money first and then worry about how far up in the money I wanted to be - going all in on those 88 was not the way to do it in my opinion. I was not in desparate straits with my stack - I was in the top 60 at that point - 60 being the cut-off for being in the money (at one point I was even in the top 20!) and I busted out at 149 out of 693.
Pacific is an interesting site, with plusses and minuses. The warning "honk" startled the cats everytime it went off, it's hilarious. I kind of miss having avatars, but I like the resizable chat box. You can't tell where anyone resides and the print in the little pop-up box when a hand is completed is too small (the chat box is a helpful solution to that). The "game history" is cool - you can replay your hands.
In spite of the bust-out in the tourney, it was a good evening. I had been inspired from reading Howard Lederer's articles on his 2003 WSOP and WPT showings and I believe that helped me approach the tourney this evening in a good frame of mind. I only made one mistake - but it was a doozie!
