Trip From Hell

I played in the $550 tournament on Saturday at the Beau Rivage. My first hand I played I had J10 and limped in last position. No one bet the flop or turn with a jack high board. I bet the turn and got called. Then a raggedy 4 hits the river and the caller bets into me. I call. He had J4. Why not. I played JJ pretty strong and had to fold to a guy who claimed later he flopped a wheel. I thought it was a set. I played about 7 more pots and won none of them. I flopped two pair once and got counterfeited on the river to have to split the pot. I went down from $8000 to $1700. Then I hit a set and went up to like $4000. I made it back to $6000ish when I had to switch tables. Then my soon to be ex wife calls me. She wanted to know if I was going to be somewhere that night so we wouldnt run into each other and I said no and then she said she needed to talk to me in the next coupla days. Not to fill you in on the details but any contact with her is traumatic and her needing to talk to me about something but not telling me what is cause for concern. So I sit at my new table and all I can think about is wtf could it be. Maybe she's pregnant. Maybe she is moving to Nevada to be a hooker. Maybe she has cancer. Whatever. This is going through my head. Somewhere in there I raised a coupla pots and won them preflop. Then I caught 55 UTG. I shoulda mucked. Someone raises to $800 and I call. The flop is J87 with 2 clubs. I check. He checks behind. Turn is nothing. I check. He bets $1500. Without very much good thought I decide he is on AK and trying to buy it now. I never even looked at him. I raise most of my chips and he puts the rest of me in. He had AA. I woulda thought with an over pair he woulda bet the flop. I guess he put me on a middle pair and didnt want to be up against a set so he checked and when I didnt bet the turn he knew. Oh well. Never answer your soon to be ex-wifes call during a tournament. The rest of the weekend was more losing. I lost most of my cash game money by flopping top pair top kicker and my opponent catching a set on the turn again. That accounts for most of my loses in the last 2 months. Also there was a fire alarm and they evacuated the hotel at 3am but didnt alert the casino people. So all our wives and girlfriends and kids and whatever were shipped outside in the cold while we played casino games. We started getting texts about it and no one got up from the table to go see what the deal was. I paid for that little fau paus later but I wont talk about it. Lets just say when Im gambling expect me to err on the side of being self centered. Its not personal. Its just being a degenerate who is stuck $300. Then the next morning I dumped like $300 into the slots on the way outta town. Genius. My girl friend was up $400 in the first hour on slots but was down $200 with 4 hours. We really tore that casino up good. Never up on any table or machine at anytime. I realize that Im a better tournament player than cash player. I play tight aggressive in tournaments but I play mostly loose passive at the cash table these days. I gotta change that. At least I need to play loose aggressive. I need to start experimenting with taking big stabs at pots when the time is right. I guess it just seems like everytime I stick my neck out on a bluff I get my head chopped off. Gun shy lately. So anyway Im looking forward to playing again soon. I may play Sunday at Harrahs.