Another Breath of Life

Friday rolled around, and facing a short work day thanks to Santa Barbara style, I was facing a tough decision as to what to do with my two-and-a-half day weekend ahead of me. I could sit around and stare at a computer screen, I could head down to the beach (why would I do that on a clear, sunny day), or I could..........by god......I could.........yes! YES!!

"Hey Joe"

"...huh......wheh.......what?......"

"Dude it's like 12:30, get up."

"..........no........."

"Come on man, let's go grab some lunch and head up for a long session at Chumash, it's been like two months!"

"...........ok.......let me take a shower real quick........."

Thank god for poker buddies :) We hit up Baja Fresh on the way to the 154 (which is oh so good if you haven't had it in a while), and we took that all so familiar drive to the indian safe haven. It took us what seemed like less time than usual, and I was in a great mood to play. Being that it had been so long since I had last played I really felt good, geared up, and refreshed.

When we showed up the usual 2/5NL games were in full swing. There were two 100/200 buy-ins and a 300/500 buy-in going. If I had been in a spot I was in a few months ago I would've jumped right into the 300/500. But thanks to the fact that I previously withdrew the BR I had left from play altogether, I thought it best to sit in a 100/200 and mop up. I got a seat after a quick wait, and was offered a very lovely table. There was a friendly in the seat to my right (Garrett) who I've become pretty decent friends with, and I didn't want to tangle with him just out of pure friendship, but we usually stay out of each other's ways anyways and there was plenty of other fishies to take down.

I started off pretty decently, quickly building my $200 buy-in to around $450 when a super-donk took the 9s. I quickly turned to my buddy on my right and told him how donk-a-licious this guy was, and about 3 hands later they got heads up on a K-Q-5 flop, and Garrett took the guy for about $170 of his $200 starting stack. Garrett had K-9 lol. He had been betting the whole way and SD had been calling him down with Q-8, and had decided to leave himself with $30......just in case, I suppose. This was perfect.

A little bit later I found aces after Garrett had opened up for $20. I popped it up to $60 behind him, and Garrett flat-called. He asked if I wanted to check it down, I said sure. He said he had queens and I politely told him I had aces, and he was surprised cuz he thought he was doing ME a favor. The flop came up 10 high and he said I could bet it if I wanted, so I throw out a nickel and he mucked into a $120 pot. nh me. Haha I wouldn've run it, but I really didn't want to see a queen on the turn, and he told me he'd rather not see a queen anyways since I'd let him live by telling him I had it. This kind of sucked, and is a prime example of why nice people shouldn't make friends at the poker table. At that point he was sitting on about $400, and I could have easily broken him if I'd let it play out. There's always tons of action, and usually overplays in these games, which makes it so very, very fun to play in, and surely if we hadn't have been that friendly with each other I could've easily added his $400 to my stack.

But I took up the pot and gladly stacked it, knowing that at least I got $60 from the aces. After about half hour I was still sitting on around $650 when looked at QQ from the BB. There was a raise to $15 from an EP TAG, and three callers behind him. I made it $115 to go, and it folded around to the super-donk in the 9seat who only had $145. He had $30 left (again), and I put him in in the dark. The board came up A-x-x, and he said "Well might as well" as he threw in his $30 and turned over A6. Great call preflop by the SD, nh me.

That got me pretty pissed, but never the mind I was going to take all of his money by the end of the night. Fifteen minutes later after it folded around to me I bumped it up to $20 with AsJs, and got two callers out of the blinds, the BB being the SD, sitting with about $90 now, after wasting the pot from FIFTEEN MINUTES EARLIER. The board came up 4-J-7, and it checked to me. I tossed out $25 and the SB folded. The SD was being jittery and staring at his chips and pushed the rest of his chips in a single tower into the middle. It was $45 more to me, and I took one glance over at the 9seat and saw him messing with his cards as I quickly threw out the cards. He hastily threw over his 67, and I turned up my AJ. Turn 6, river blank. A $200+ pot wasted to the SD. No big deal, still had around $450 and was controlling the table and my reads. This SD was startin to get on my nerves though.

Turn the clock forward a half hour, and after rebuilding my stack to around $600 just playing stack-building poker, I get HU with none other than SD himself. This time he's wasted his whole $200 from sucking out on me and now has rebought for another $100. I raised it up with AQ after one limper, and ended up getting one caller: an out of position SUPERDONK. He just wouldn't leave me alone. This time the board comes up with a Q-7-10. He checks again, I bet out $30, and he pushes in again, this time for another $50 or so. Ummm.....ok I call. SD turns over 89offsuit. GG me, cuz here comes the...yup, 6 on the turn and I'm done for that hand. ONCE AGAIN, I'm down back down to $500.

I eventually built back up to $800, and was still cruisin when I hit a wall. I opened the pot in the CO-1 with JJ and got called by the button and the SB. On a Q-rag-rag rainbow flop the SB checked and I fired out $25. The button flat-called and we lost the SB. The turn was a blank, but put 2 hearts on the board. I bet out $55 and got called by the button once again. I didn't think he had a Q when he flat called, but a King on the river made me hesitant. I reluctantly checked and he checked behind showing the K10h. *sigh* That was a sweet $100 wasted.

After that I lost some more of my stack by cont. betting KK and QQ on dangerous boards and getting raised off of them on the flop, and I was feeling pretty dejected at my recent turnaround of bad luck in the past 2 hours. After raising it up with AK and getting HU with the SD, we saw a flop of K-6-3, and after getting all of his money in (he had about $180 thanks to another full rebuy), he showed me his patented 76, and then he showed me a river 7...again. That put me under $200 for the first time since I had sat down. My last hand had me HU against a pretty tight player with my AQ vs his AJ. My money went in on the turn of a 9-high board, he makes the call with AJ. River J, gg me.

I could've easily rebought and stuck it out another 6 hours, but I was so disheveled by the last two hours at that point that I decided to call it quits. I talked with a few of the floor people and dealers who were on break as I waited for Joe to finish up. I ended up playing well, I made two big moves to stay alive when I had to, and couldn't make my big hands hold up. I should've easily been a $1,000 winner on the night, but I ended up getting smoked multiple times and now I have to wait again to take another shot.

I'm trying to be very wary of my playing right now, because I really don't have the cash to play right now because of personal reasons, but every time I take a 3seat or 7s and think about how I can dominate the Chumash game it gets my brain going.

Discipline sucks, but it should only be a little bit longer until I'm back in the game full swing. Until then, it hurts, it hurts I tell you!

Until next time.

PS - He did it!!