Rollercoaster

What goes up must come down, to every yin there is a yang, etc. etc. etc. After adding on a quick stack and half, I spent the few hours posting blinds limping in with hands that didn't connect and running card dead. In retrospect I should have taken a break but chose not to. I was on auto-pilot though so I didn't make any poor decisions. I was mainly just playing by the book. I may have come in with an os one gapper to try to cap betting in the SB but by and large I played blackjack hands, and tried to limp in with small pocket pairs and suited connectors. Not that there were a lot of those hands mind you. I could not believe that there was as many 47os, 83os, J2os, K3os etc. hands in the deck.

I called some raised pots with good starting hands and missed and I lost some chips when I folded what turned out to be hands that were ahead. That and blinds eroded my stack down past the 300 mark, down past the 250 mark, down past the 200 mark, and I eventually ended up fluctuating within the 100 to 200 range for hours.

Then I was dealt 4h5h in the BB and got to see a flop for free. Flop came 236 two diamonds. I lead out for about 10 to start building the pot. Then the turn brings a 4 and Seat 8 makes a big bet. Great, I thought, now I'm going to chop with someone with a random 5. I push all in for not much more than his raise and he turns over 67 for top pair and a gutshot to a higher straight. A merciful blank falls on the river and my stack is healthier.

Next key hand has me up against one of the Mercer Island kids (yes, as in from Mercer Island WA). I have trained them to recognize that when I check I don't have anything and when I bet I have top pair. So the flop comes out K high two clubs. MI kid 1 leads 20, MI kid 2 calls as do I. Turn pairs the 3 on the board and MI kid 1 leads out 30. MI kid 2 folds but as he does he exposes the King of clubs. Hmmm. One King on the board, one in my hand, and one now exposed. I know it happens but all Kings are now accounted for if MI 1 indeed has a King and not something else. I pause before calling wondering if MI 2 knows something I don't know. I call the turn bet. River is a blank and MI1 fires the third shell. I figure that there is no way he would have limped in with AK so as long as he has a King, I am at worst chopping since a boat was unlikely based on other cards on the board. I am also wondering why he isn't slowing down since my calling means I have a King and I have only shown reasonable hands down. Turns out he had KJ and I bring my stack above 200 for the first time in a while.

Then some new players come in and the table turns into 2/5 style. Seat 9 likes to raise in the dark and will defend his big blind or his straddle without looking at his cards. One hand he raised to 25 in the dark and gets three callers. Flop is 245. He bets out 100, call, call, call. Turn is an 8. And he goes all in for the remaining 90 or so in his stack, call, call, fold. River is a blank and the other two check it down. One has Kings, the other has Queens, and the original blind raiser had A3 and flopped perfect. Rakes a huge pot. Such is life in 2/5-land. I've seen crazy stuff happen like this all the time.

Since the table has changed character and especially since I am two seats away from the crazy guy who likes to button raise in the dark on general principle. I figure it's a good time to take off.

Grand total today 206. Some times you make $100 an hour, other times it's more like 50 cents an hour. But at least it was in the black.

Going to hit the hay now and try to sleep a little more at night in preperation for Monday when I won't have the room for afternoon napage.