Irish Chokage

The St-Patrick is a nice opportunity to imbibe with or without moderation. I have absolutely no Irish blood, but I believe that any tradition involving, let alone encouraging, the consumption of alcoholic beverages is to be treated with utmost respect.

I arrived at a friend's place, almost dying thrice on the way. The weather was rather ugly, with icy roads and a mild snowstorm. I parked in a free snowy spot, internally bragging about how good my winter tires were, allowing me to park where very few others dared to venture.

I dropped a call to some other friends I was supposed to meet later, and then started to enjoy a cold one. And another. Then a few more. Guinness is just that good.

A bit later I was on a couch with a nice girl, you know, minding my own business. It was pretty neat, until some guy walked by and said: 'There's a white car being towed'.

Shit.

Everyone figured out it was mine, and now I realized that my parking spot wasn't a dare, simply a trap. A few minutes and a phone call later, all I knew was that I'd have to call back in the morning. Great. It would probably cost me 150$, and I'd have to find a way to get there.

That, alone, was enough to make me slightly bitter, but not angry. Just another bad beat, right? Then I realised that the mood was totally destroyed, and I'd be forced to choke again.

Great.

Not that I wouldn't have anyway, you know me better than that, but it just sucks to not even be able to enjoy the moment. All I had on my side now was pity, which isn't exactly so fucking money. She eventually fell asleep on my rather comfy shoulder, and ended up taking a cab home.

In the morning, I called and learned that my car was much closer than I thought. They simply towed it into the parking lot of the local stadium. About 10 minutes later, I saw the small pink piece of paper in my windshield and let out a big 'Woohoo!'. Apparently, you can screw up once with plowing schedules and get away with it. Next time, it's gonna be 117$, but now I've learned my lesson:

Think before you park, or you'll choke after dark.

Back in town

After the last two weeks at my bro's place, I'm back in Quebec city. These two weeks were really fun actually, even if I did have to be a part-time bitch. I guess the pie and beer made up for it.

While I was there, I played a good 10k hands of poker, with mixed results. I kind of lost my game in there somewhere, so my profits are less than stellar. 500$ for two weeks is basically a loss.

I started playing heads-up again though, and I got in against a maniac right away.

Right off the bat, I lost a big pot with queens, all-in preflop against his KJo.
On the very next hand, I am the one with KJo, but it is no match for his 83s.
What should have been done in 10 hands started to get bigger as I was already down over 200, as a big favorite everytime.

After a bit of a bad start, I fight my way back up, and finally take all my money back.
He elects to rebuy, and move all-in 10 hands in a row, stealing the blinds everytime, as my best hand was J4o in that period. Right after that, he gets very lucky again, and I have to pay him off.

I was a bit off my game at that point, down about 400, and I played a bad 50 hands, where I was also cold decked. He was about to leave, but I taunted him a bit, which forced him to stay and play some more. I recouped, doubled up with aces against his shitty hand (63s?), and picked up a bluff with a very tough call. A few hands later, he makes another such play, which I pick up easily as the pot was much smaller.

Down to his last 150$, he makes another of his stupid moves, moving all-in right away to steal the blinds, as he had done about 20 times already. This time, though, I wake up with aces, and finish the kid off!

The swings were huge, and it was tough, but in the end, I prevailed. This little graph should speak by itself anyway. What's kinda sad is that the rake cut through most of my profits, so while my opponent lost over 200$, I only made 88$. I'll get another 40$ or so in rakeback, but the rake really seems to hurt in heads-up at this level (since the pot pretty much always hits the max rake, but rarely goes much higher, this is probably the most profitable level for the poker room.)

Hopefully I'll keep kicking ass though, and will be able to afford my Lexus soon enough ;)

Way Up

I was having an ok session, playing my 3-4 tables, and some guy at one table had over 1k. When the buy-in is $200, that is what we call a pretty good session for him. I quickly realized he was a great player, and would not get much out of him. Just for the kicks though, I checked out his other tables, and all I could say was 'Holy Shit!'. Look at the screenshot and gaze in awe. He was up about 6k total, and had been playing 8 tables for hours. Something tells me he should move up.

Somebody hates me

When I do not run KK into AA, I run AA into KK...

Goodbye new LCD! :'(

I'm a bitch!

I'm at my bro's place these days, acting as the good little bitch. He's had an operation recently and he's pretty much incapacitated, so I have to do pretty much everything he tells me to, and act as a personal driver as well.

While this might seem pretty bad, it has its perks. First, I get to play some hours of poker everyday. Second, his girlfriend cooks amazing food pretty much every meal, and she actually encourages beer consumption. It's a good deal so far, and I haven't even talked about the pie yet!

I happen to be in a rather good mood, and people seem to cooperate with me on the poker scene. For some reason, they just donate their money. The last one, I can understand. Bad move, but understandable. But the first two... I thought it was so obvious I was strong that I wouldn't even get paid by a good hand!

I also watched some cardrunners videos, and I learned an awful lot. The videos by Brian Townsend (sbrugby, the guy on High Stakes Poker) are really good. Hopefully, he'll keep uploading quality work like this.

I played some more Mansion 100ks, but I ran out of luck in all of them near the bubble or barely in the money. We're talking about 4-5 coinflips lost, two 40/60, and one 70/30. I'll be due soon enough!

On this, I have to go cook some French toasts and resume my bitch duty.