Here We Go Again

My blog lately may be sounding like a bit of a broken record, but yesterday continued to be somewhat frustrating. I played the six handed 2.5k event and initially had some success. My table draw was good other than having Barry Greenstein to my right. He is fresh off his win in the Razz. Starting with 5k in chips I slowly chipped up to around 7k and then picked up 10 10 in the small blind and raised 4 BB's. The big blind re-raised me making it 12 BB's, and I thought he was not strong, putting him on a mid ace at best. The flop came 4 7 J, and I bet about 3/4^th of the pot. He called. On the turn a queen came and I again bet slightly more than ½ the pot and he moved in. I thought for a minute and called. He flipped over 8 9 for a gutter ball, and somehow missed his draw on the river and I had 12k in chips with the average being 6k. A few hands later Barry raises 3 BB's from the button and I look down at two aces, and quickly smooth call from the small blind, the big blind calls as well. The flop comes J 7 4 and I bet 400 into a 1050 pot. The big blind smooth calls and Barry raises to 1,500. I quickly go all in and make a joke about trying to get "the book" from him. Whenever Barry Greenstein busts out of an event he gives a copy of his book "Ace on the River" which he signs and writes something about the hand in the front cover, to the player that beats him. Well, Barry quickly calls and shows Q J. When he sees my aces he says "wow you played the hand really well." Low and behold a J comes on the turn to double Barry up, and leave me with 5k in chips. A little while later the cut off raises 3 BB and in the big blind I have A J and call. The flop comes A J 6 and I bet ½ the pot. The cut off calls and a 4 comes on the turn. I bet again about ½ the pot and he moves in and I call quickly. He shows A K and is upset to see my A J, but he also picked up a flush draw on the turn. Unfortunately a king comes on the river and I'm out.

On a brighter note, my friend David Singer made another final table in the 3k no limit holdem. He is slightly below average but he is playing and running well and will hopefully win his second bracelet. John Phan, another close friend of mine and also a great player is at the final table as well, and I will predict one of the two will win. On an interesting note two other players at the final table have played with and can't believe they made as far as they have. One player who I played with a couple of days ago in a cash game, was new and inexperienced. The game was almost built around her, she tried to bluff me several times, and in fact on one occasion she bluffed off almost her entire stack to me in one hand. In that case I called her with second pair, knowing she was weak. The other guy is another tournament player who I have played with several times and continually puts his whole stack at risk on what he hopes is a coin flip, and usually winds up to be a bigger underdog than that, and still wins. In fact he doubled through David twice, both times a huge underdog. Okay I'll quit complaining and if this sounds a little like sour grapes, well perhaps it is just a little. The luck factor is the equalizer in poker that keeps the mediocre player coming back. We always say these players are good for the game, but do they have to keep winning?

I played in an interesting cash game last night which was half pot limit Omaha and half no limit holdem. I came out a tiny bit ahead but should have done better. One of the players in the game, Diane, in the PLO tried to play the board when there were 5 clubs on it. She is another example of putting your money in bad and winning, fortunately not against me. This reminds me of advice someone once gave me when I was struggling with my golf game, "take a few months off and then give the game up." I'm only kidding, but it is getting frustrating. Although I ran bad, I somehow managed to break even.

Today I'll play the 1.5k event and I'm hopeful it will go a little better. When I go back and look at the hands I'm losing, I really am way ahead when the chips go in, so my plan is to just stay on target. Thanks to all of you for letting me vent my frustration here today and I will try to be more positive in the future.

For more information on Roy Winston, you can visit his website: www.oraclepoker.net or send him an email: [email protected]