Not A LAG

Filed Under: Poker

The FTOPS Main Event came and went for me without even making the first break. With a first place prize in excess of 100K a win would have been a life changing event. The only debt I would have had left would be a mortgage payment and that would have made me a very happy boy.

I wanted it so bad that I changed the way I played. A few hands in I'm in the cutoff with J9o. It's folded to me and I take a stab at stealing the blinds. It folds to the BB who bumps it up about 3x my raise and with deep stacks I make the call. The flop comes K 8 10 and the BB bets out for half the pot. In my normal frame of mind I put in a raise here. I'm looking at an OESD and considering I called the preflop reraise I couldn't have asked for much of a better flop. If I reraise I can define my opponents hand based on his action.

That would have been the old me. The new intimidated by the prize pool me decides to just call and hope to catch on the turn. I don't catch and we check to the river. My opponent shows AQh for a runner runner flush and if I had raised on the flop I'm pretty sure I win the hand. Instead I'm down to just over half my starting stack.

Fortunately for me I realize that I'm not playing my normal game and switch modes. I manage to grind back up to just about my starting stack when I get QQ in the cutoff. I make my raise and it's the BB who again plays with me. The flop comes J high with two diamonds. My opponent bets, I push, he calls. He shows AJd for top pair and the flush draw. I'm chanting, "No Diamond, No Diamond, No Diamond". The poker gods grant my wish of no diamond and instead produce an Ace on the river to end my hopes of being debt free.

I then fire up a NL cash game and over aggressively give away a buy-in. The I give another buy-in away when I hit TPTK vs. my opponents set. My third buy-in goes away when I actually have the best of it. QQ vs. 10 10 but a 10 hits the turn.

I finally decide it's not my day and call it quits.

(of course I'll probably play again in a few hours)