I played the Sunday Million on Stars today and the 750k Guarantee on FullTilt. I busted fairly early in the Sunday Million. However, I made a nice deep run in the 750k. I ended up finishing 45th of over 4k players. This was good enough for a 1.9k payoff, but it isn’t as nice as the 150k up for grabs for first. BTW, I had a really good shot to go deeper, but with about 50 people left I lost a big pot when my KK couldn’t hold up against QQ when all the money went in pre.

Outside of that, not much to report. HU 5 card draw has been killing me recently. I had made some changes to my game recently that I thought would pay off. But from what I can tell, things just aren’t working as I thought they would. So I basically am reverting back to some of my standard play that I had used in the past. Hopefully things will turn around then.

I think I am going to remove my goal to 60k graph on the right here in the next couple of days since I just don’t see me making it. It is unfortunate, but I will try again some other time. But I do have to admit that when it was late in that 750k guarantee tournament, I was just eyeing down what some of the places paid hoping I could get something to put me past the 60k. But as it is, not today…..and it is almost kind of embarassing that I have failed so badly at this goal though I knew it was unlikely I would reach it, I still thought I would do better than what I have done. Oh well, not meant to be this time…..maybe next time.

The title has two connotations.  One, I am officially on a break, and will be seen missing from action.  Two, I am heading to Miami tomorrow for a bachelor party.

The break is much needed.  This week has been brutal.  I lose and lose and lose.  I am officially an ATM right now for anyone playing me.  I have no idea what is going on, I review my HHs and though I make a few minor mistakes here and there, I am just on the wrong side of variance right now (and pretty much have been since the beginning of August).  There is no other explanation.

The other day when I lost over 8k in 5 card draw, I was playing this guy HU in which I had two trips, and a straight lose to a draw 4!  First of all, if you see your opponent drawing 4 in a HU game, it is usually a tell-tale sign of a game to jump into.  But not for me.  Not now.  LOLOLOLOL

I don’t know what to say about poker right now, so lets talk about this bachelor party…..

I am heading to Miami tomorrow and Friday night we are going to a Miami Heat game.  Then on Saturday night, we are going to the Virginia Tech vs Miami Football game.  We will likely head to the beach, go to a casino, and lord knows what else!  I am definitely looking forward to it, but in the back of my head I know I am going to be thinking about how bad this week has been in poker.

Sooo…I will be MIA for the next few days.  I will post some pics here in the future of Miami.

Amount to 60k: $23,282.93

(Though I know I am likely to not hit my goal by now, I am still going to list the running total until the goal deadline gets here on January 1st.)

That I run good on PokerStars.  I lost $9,908 today.  I didn’t cash in 2 PCA tourneys I played.  I didn’t cash in the Sunday Million.  By the way, I am done going for the PCA this year, I am just going to give up on the idea that I could go two years in a row.  Mostly because of how expensive those satellites get, but also because of some stuff on the home front.

PLUS, I got my butt whipped in 5 card draw today.  Just to give you an idea of how bad it was, I lost over 3k to one player alone who “said he had never played before”.  The funny thing is, I believe him!  Because he was making so many mistakes, but the cards bailed him out left and right.  I seriously almost broke my mouse tonight 20 times.  I really have no idea how I can run this bad.  Not only today, but I am surprised I haven’t imploded like I did today, before today. I don’t care if you think I am not that good at the game, but you can’t seriously tell me that anyone with experience in the game should lose that much in one day.  I do have to admit that about the last 1k was blown off from tilt though, but well before that, I was destined to go broke it seemed.

I am sitting here studying up on how to play optimally and un-exploitively and the crap that keeps on happening to me is just unexplainable.  I start with a better hand.  I get outdrawn (which first of all shouldn’t happen that often in 5cd, especially in the situations I am getting outdrawn in.  We are talking about 80% favorites losing over and over again).  Next, I start behind, but I improve to the point where you have to either call or reraise if you improve enough.  Next thing I know, I get popped again, because my opponent shows down a full house.  LOL!  I can’t beat luck.  I can’t beat 10k worth of luck.

My chances of reaching 60k at this point are now at exactly zero.

The crazy thing is is that I was starting to make a push.  I was up almost 10k in this month from 5 card draw, but it didn’t seem that way because of the expensive PCA satellites that I couldn’t even get near the money in.  I am just so overwhelmed with this stench of bad luck that has been lingering around ever since the end of July.

Amount to 60k: $25,670.93

But ended…..uh not so hot.  I just got finished playing an hour long HU session where my opponent somehow showed up with 2 pair or better what seemed like every other hand and I ended up dropping $600.  I can’t beat luck.

But its all good, as I won on the night.

I won $321.50 on Stars (though I was over $900 until luckfest came into play)

and I won $352.50 on Fulltilt (though it should have been more there too)

Sigh, the most unexcited I have ever been about winning $674 in one night.  I was over $1,500 at one point tonight.

Oh well.

Amount to 60k: $35,578.93

Tonight the wife and I went out to a movie and dinner.  It was a celebration of 4 years of marriage, though our true anniversary isn’t until the 18th. We went to go see ‘The Social Network’ and that movie was great!  I had heard great reviews, but and it didn’t disappoint.  Though there was no real edge-of-the-seat moment in the movie, it was like an extended documentary told in a different light.  Though it is based on a true story, somethings were added in its own Hollywood-style.  It was a great movie.

So anyway, after the night out; we came back home and I fired up some poker.  I had couple beers at dinner and grabbed a few more while playing.  I don’t know if it was the beer or just the cards, but I played a ton more relaxed and controlled tonight.  More things went the way I liked to see them as the session wore on.  After about 30 minutes I was up over $1200.  Everyone left the table shortly later.

I ended up playing a couple quick HU sessions on PokerStars as well.  Both of which I won pretty swiftly.  What a great night on Stars…….finally!  Now hopefully I can keep it up.

I got no action on Fulltilt tonight.  But since I had a good night on PokerStars, I am not too worried.

Amount to 60k: $34,904.93

I am calling it an early night tonight since it still isn’t midnight.  But I need the rest as work pretty much kicked my butt this week.

More of the same.  I lost $102.50 on Stars, yet won $979.50 on Fulltilt.

To be fair to myself though, I lost nearly $1,200 to start the night out on PokerStars.  I had a wildly aggressive player to my left who was hitting every single hand and outplaying me to death.  It was a brutal stretch where nothing went right for me.  I should have just simply changed seats or at the least gotten up.  I was pretty card dead through this session and was trying to stay active but was getting relentless reraises from my left.  When I did have a big hand, it didn’t matter, because they showed up with better.  Just one of those sessions.  But these sessions are popping up just way too frequently.

I did make a great comeback to only be down $102.50 for the night on PokerStars though.  So I am happy about that.  About $200 of that comeback though was from an incredibly lucky run of cards in a quick HU session.

The $979.50 from Fulltilt all came from HU draw.  Nothing too out of the ordinary there.

Amount to 60k: $33,389.46