Frikkin finally

So I left off looking for a table change after an exceptional run of bad luck and now my bad luck holds. The table is still short, now down to about 6 players but rather than break it they keep it running. It’s been a busy Sat and I guess they feel they can fill it. Thing is, I’m not getting moved from a short table so I head back after wandering for awhile and I at least change my seat. It doesn’t really change my luck except for giving me cards I can keep folding so that helps a bit. I’ve moved to the 9 seat, yes I know, not my favorite, but it puts me to the left of the guy with the racing form and it was a good move. Two guys shortly sit down, in fact for a few minutes the table actually fills, but these two are refugees from a 1-3 NL game. With them in the game, and the 2-5 player, there is a lot of 3 betting pre and post flop. Again the pots are being built but again my cards have gone cold. I guess the way these guys are playing is getting on others nerves since it’s like a revolving door at the table for the next hour or so. The kids have mainly left, out of chips, and the older players taking their place aren’t hanging around long. Just can’t keep a full table and my chance of moving looks slim and my stack is wearing down, slowly but surely. Finally a floor comes over to me and moves me to another table and it seems I’m the subject of some controversy. I don’t know what went on but I hear the one floor mention that I had asked for a table change an hour ago. I gather one floor was going to sit someone there and the other beat him to it with me. There was still a seat or two at my old table so it couldn’t be there was no room, someone else must have wanted that table though I have no idea why. First, it was a stud table and a small one at that so hey could not fit more than 9 at it. I was at the 6 or 7 depending on your count. Most of the seats were occupied by older guys but there was an older woman in the 3 seat and a couple of younger guys with accents sitting in the 1 and 2 seats. The 1 seat was a piece of work. To me there is nothing more pretentious than sitting at a 2-4 table and wearing sunglasses. It’s a joke as far as I’m concerned. It passes beyond pretentiousness to ridiculousness when you have no idea or clue about the game and here we have the guy in the 1. He’s sitting there with his fancy sunglasses and not the foggiest. Dealer, or the table, had to keep explaining to him that it was his turn to act and what that action could be. Kept trying to bet wrong amounts, kept trying to check after there was already a bet and raise, you name it he tried to do it as long as it was wrong. His buddy in the 2 was better; I guess he brought him down for the first time. The worst part of it was though, while everyone starts out new at one time or another, and 2-4 players are usually good and patient about helping beginners most beginners start to catch on to the basics within the first hour or so. This guy however never seemed to learn. Every hand was an adventure and after I was at the table for about 2 hours, he had been there longer, a number of the players started to get pissed because he was holding up the game. We were lucky to be getting 20 hands an hour. The dealers kept a good face on it but they had to be getting pissed as he was costing them tips. My cards were no better here, looked like it was going to be one of those nights, and the game lost the woman and a guy or two and settled down into a short handed table with Frick and Frack in the first two seats, a couple of late middle aged guys next, myself, and then a couple of older guys. I was already down about $120, an amount I rarely go down in 2-4 and pull a few more twenties to stick under the few chips I got left. The guy to my right and the guy in the 10 are fairly aggressive, betting anything. The guy in about the 4 is fairly tight. Frick and Frack are calling stations, especially Frick. Frack can fold a hand once in awhile. Frick however is one of those characters Providence takes care of. He’ll call down with just an A and hit it on the river, or bottom pair and catch the second one. As I was usually the victim of this it was getting frustrating. I did seem to win a couple when he did discover the word fold in the dictionary but I was dropping chips still, though at a lower rate. The guys in the 6 and 10 also bet me off a few pots when their aggressiveness in betting middle pair on a scary board caused me to fold top pair a few times. Definitely not my night. I’m down about $160 when the low point of the night hits and I make a complete jackass move. I get A-J in position and there are 5 players to the flop. Flop comes A-Q-x, two diamonds. Checks to me and I bet with 4 callers. Turn a blank, again all checks and again I bet and I get the tight guy in the 4 and Frick. River is the K of diamonds and again it checks and so do I. The other two flip over their cards and for a moment I thought Frick had turned over a pair of Ks for a set but then I realize the second card was a J. Then I look over and see the 4 seat with Q-7 of diamonds. Just frikkin great I sigh as I toss my cards. Guy to my left, knowing I’m not betting with air, looks at me and says, “Didn’t you have the A?” Yea, I reply, so? He then proceeds to tell me that I have just mucked the winner. I look again and that red 7 was a heart, not a diamond and I had just given Frick the pot with his Ks. Yes, you heard that right, I folded the frikkin winning hand. I am way past donkey; I am now a total jackass. And of all people to give the pot to. I just wanted to shrivel up and blow away. Could it get any worse? I was so used to getting rivered that night that I made the biggest mistake you can; I didn’t double check and make sure. Yes, it wasn’t a huge pot and wasn’t going to make my night but it was the crowning achievement of a screwed up night. Insult to injury. I could only shake my head.

Thing is, after that things started to change. As if the poker gods decided that nothing they could do to me could top the way I just fucked myself I started to get some cards and they actually started to hold. Nothing major or spectacular just then but instead of bleeding chips I started to accumulate some. I had picked up about 60 or so when they decided to break the table. One of the HE tables was down to 4 so they decided to move our 6 over there. There was still one major piece of nincompoopery to come however at this new table. I wound up in the 4 seat at the new table and the 5 was occupied by my buddy with the racing form. Now that the racing was done he had his name on the 2-5 list but nothing was opening he said. He was sitting on a chip rack full of reds so I ventured a guess his night had improved after I left. He said yes and said I should have stuck around as the guy who took my seat wound up walking away up about $200. Great. Also said his horse won its race so he was having a decent night. Table was pretty good, people not afraid to bet and most new how to play. Frack had moved to the table but Frick was sitting out. My luck wasn’t great but I was winning more than losing and with the 5 occupied by my racing buddy I was playing fairly tight. About a half hour or so in two guys come to the table in the 1 and 3 seats. My buddy tells me the 1 had been at his table earlier and was a better. The 3 was a refugee from a 1-3 NL game sitting in because his girlfriend was there. Could get interesting as there was a guy down in the 9 who liked to raise. My luck is still holding and I win a few decent pots though I’m still down quite a bit. The potential to come back is there however as the guy in the one winds up winning a pot over $200 as there was a lot of raising and reraising from the “players” and a couple of calling stations tagging along. Just waiting my chance. I finally get it as a BB special. I pull A-2 suited in the BB and there is a raise down at the other end of the table but it winds up with 9 players in. Board comes A-2-x with two diamonds. I bet, gets down to the original raiser in the 8 and he raises, everyone is coming along and I reraise to 6 and my buddy in the 5 caps it. Hmmmm. Turn brings another diamond and with the amount of players I figure someone hit the flush but I bet just to see where the power lies. The 5 calls and it gets to the other end and it’s raised. Folds to me and I call and now the 5 raises. The 8 calls and so do I. River brings me the miracle A and I check, the 5 bets, the 8 calls and I raise. The 5 folds but the 8 calls with the flush and I take a sweet pot, one that actually puts me ahead for the night so far. My buddy in the 5 says he was surprised I chased the A knowing that there were 2 flushes out there as he had folded the nut flush. I said I might not have had the raise and reraise come in front of me but I was between them and the pot was too big to not call the single bet and then another single bet. I mean, by that point what was another $4 even though it wound up another $8. Wasn’t like I was exactly playing my best poker by this time. After that however my luck really picked up and the pots were pretty good sized as I approached time to leave. It was closing in on about 14 hours at the table and I wanted to get to my motel room and get a few hours of sleep in before it was time to check out. Hated to leave as I had started grabbing some chips but the time and one more hand convinced me I should, one more piece of total stupidity Again in the BB with Q-2 suited, clubs of course. Now, I still had not hot the club flush draw at Bally’s to this point. No matter how many times I had two clubs in the hole and caught two on the flop it just never came. Yet I had started keeping track and it seemed that when I wasn’t playing it and 2 clubs hit the flop that third got there about 80% of the time so CK’s on to something. There was a raise somewhere at the other end of the table and I mumble that they never come for me so I should just fold but it’s hard to fold for $2 when it looks like about a $28 or so pot preflop. I call and the flop hits and Glorioski Sandy, the clubs finally arrived. A-4-5 of clubs hit. Not only hit but only the K kills me as the A made it. I bet and there is actually a raise and I reraise and there are actually a couple of callers. Schweeet. A red card on the turn and again I bet, again a raise and a call and I reraise and two callers. I’m praying, keep it red but the 4th club hits, the 3, and I just know that the caller just has to have the K. I bet the other guy folds and the woman that had been calling raises. Damn, damn, damn I go, it had to hit. Again too much there to fold so I throw in the $4 as I say you have the K, right? She turns her cards and there’s the K and I flip my cards face up to the middle in frustration saying that I finally hit the clubs and that happened. As I’m doing this I hear the woman saying, “I knew you had that 2, I just knew it.” Huh??? Then I hear the dealer say, “straight flush wins”. Wha?????? Yep, my bone headedness for the night is complete; I almost threw away the straight flush. Luckily my frustration made me toss the cards face up instead of face down as I did earlier. I started to really kick myself as when it’s heads up in limit there is no cap on bets and I started to wonder how high it could have gone with her having the nut flush and no pair on the board, having taken it up over $40 a couple of times at the Taj when it was boat over boat, but later when I was thinking straight I realized it might not have gone far for two reasons. First, I hadn’t seen too many players at Bally’s willing to keep shoving, even when they have the nuts. Second, I’m not sure what the rule is at Bally’s for heads up uncapped. At some places it is literal, heads up and it’s uncapped but at others you have to start that street heads up for uncapped to come in to play and we had a 3rd player go to the river with us. Either way I knew it was beddy bye time when I make that goof. I decided to play to the cutoff and then leave and return the next day. As it was I wound up winning 2 of the next 3 hands, who says there is no rush, before I packed it in for the night, or morning as the case stood. I went from $180 down to cashing a bit over $400 when I left.

So, hope everyone had a good laugh at my sheer idiocy and yes, you can bust my stones for it, I only deserve it. Just know Riggs is never going to let me live this down. There’s a bit more to come as I returned again later that morning and it’s still not a normal weekend but you might have to wait a day or so for it as I am contemplating a trip down tomorrow to play some while I am rested. The freeroll period is over so this will be a regular trip and I might even be able to get some NL in. Thurs is double credit day and I’m looking to move my status up so that I can start qualifying for some freebie rooms. If I can get a few nights I can take my daughter down for a couple nights when she is down for the summer and stay there and drive down to Ocean City in the morning for the beach and boards. Thanks for you attention.