Back In Black

Well I'm finally back in black as an online poker player with my current session. However, I feel like things may be starting to wear on me. I took one hell of roller coaster ride on Wednesday, I shot up $375 during my first hour of play by making three hero calls (all of which were correct), one overpair vs overpair suckout, and one straight flush draw that hit the straight. I felt like I probably should have just quit there. I wasn't playing all that well, and I was tired, but I hadn't made the 200 points I needed for the Ironman competition (going for gold this month) and I figured if was hot, I was hot and I should see if I could ride it a bit longer. I also decided my BR could now handle my buying into the tables with $90 and brought all the tables that weren't already up to that level to $90.

Unfortunately, the poker gods, deciding that I was being gluttonous by not quitting after the gift they had given me, ruled that I could not win another big hand for the rest of the session. I now had the Antimidas Touch, everything I saw turned to shit. I honestly don't remember most of what happened (a sign that I was in no condition to be playing) but I found myself going from +$375 to -150 over the course of about 3 hours. I then found myself in a hand with a pair and a flush draw and in my worn-out, poker losing stupor, I found my self throwing out a $100 hail mary to try and get close to even for the night:

Full Tilt Poker Game #2661277695: Table Munoz - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:19:16 ET - 2007/06/14
Seat 1: Villain1 ($102)
Seat 2: Blank ($95.95)
Seat 4: Blank ($93.85)
Seat 5: Blank ($48.50)
Seat 6: Villain2 ($184.85)
Seat 7: Blank ($85.35)
Seat 8: Blank ($137.90)
Seat 9: Jaturongkabaht ($95.40)
Jaturongkabaht posts the small blind of $0.50
Villain1 posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Jaturongkabaht [8d 7d]
Blank folds
Blank folds
Blank folds
Villain2 raises to $4
Blank folds
Blank folds
Jaturongkabaht calls $3.50
Villain1 calls $3
*** FLOP *** [9d 2d 7c]
Jaturongkabaht has 15 seconds left to act
Jaturongkabaht bets $8
Villain1 calls $8
Villain2 has 15 seconds left to act
Villain2 raises to $37
Jaturongkabaht has 15 seconds left to act
Jaturongkabaht raises to $91.40, and is all in
Villain1 raises to $98, and is all in
Villain2 calls $61
Villain1 shows [Kd Ad]
Villain2 shows [9c 9s]
Jaturongkabaht shows [8d 7d]
*** TURN *** [9d 2d 7c] [4h]
*** RIVER *** [9d 2d 7c 4h] [9h]
Villain1 shows a pair of Nines
Villain2 shows four of a kind, Nines
Villain2 wins the side pot ($13.20) with four of a kind, Nines
Jaturongkabaht shows two pair, Nines and Sevens
Villain2 wins the main pot ($283.20) with four of a kind, Nines
Villain1 is sitting out
Jaturongkabaht is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $299.40 Main pot $286.20. Side pot $13.20. | Rake $3
Board: [9d 2d 7c 4h 9h]
Seat 1: Villain1 (big blind) showed [Kd Ad] and lost with a pair of Nines
Seat 6: Villain2 showed [9c 9s] and won ($296.40) with four of a kind, Nines
Seat 9: Jaturongkabaht (small blind) showed [8d 7d] and lost with two pair, Nines and Sevens

As you can see, that was an awful play, and as it turned out I had nearly drawing dead. To make it even worse, I had been playing with Villain2 for most of the night and all my observations should have told me he had a VERY strong hand there, and not just TPTK or an overpair. Villain1 I wasn't worried about at all. I haven't seen any spectacular play from him at all and I was honestly shocked when he called. In either case I was done after that hand. Now -$250 for the session, I was WELL beyond Caro's Threshold of Misery, and made my best decision of the night, I turned off my computer. Caro's Threshold of Misery is actually a concept I wish I held to a lot more strongly than I did. In short, the theory states that there is a point at which you have lost enough money during the session that numbness sets in, and every additional loss has almost no effect on you. THe biggest reason I have these large blow-ups is because I fail to recognize when I have hit this point. I think Wednesday night I hit that point when I had fallen down to only being +$50 for the session. Yet my ego and ultra competitive drive held me captive to the poker table, and I continued to piss off an other $300 while in a state where winning poker was probably impossible. To top in all off, the hole $625 swing gave me a massive case of heartburn, a sure sign that I may want to consider a break in the near future.

For as bad as Wednesday was though, today was great. I slept over at the girlfriends house (also a great reason not to play Thursday night, woke up at 12:30, had sex at some point, rode the train with her to work, went home and ate a snack and eventually sat down to play at around 6. Started today again with a $70 buy-in at my 6 tables and worked it for about $200 on a few big hands that got paid. I took a dinner break at that point and came back and played for about another hour and a half and pretty much it was more of the same, and I walked away with another $200. Given the horror story of Wednesday, I decided this time when I was up $400 would be a good time to stop. It was just a solid, uneventful day of poker, which is pretty much my favorite kind =).