Just Because You're A Professional Poker Player, Doesn't Mean You Can Beat 1/2 NL

Seriously. Apparently it doesn't.

So I went to the Horseshoe Casino, intending to play poker for ten-twelve hours and donk around at 1/2 NL. By the way, the Horseshoe itself is actually really nice. The poker room is much nicer than at Majestic Star or Ameristar. Anyway, so early on, wasn't hitting flops, then finally picked up 8s with only like 100 behind at that point. Raise, got like 5 callers. Gotta love cash games. Flop was 664, 2 hearts, bet like 25, everyone except bb folds. BB was a very good player. I put him on a draw, shoved, he beat me into the pot, oops. Reload time one. The shove was probably pretty bad.

Reload time two, pick up JJ in bb, bunch of limpers, button raises to 5 (whatever), I repop to 20, everyone else mucks, button calls. Flop is QQ3. I bet 30, button calls. Turn is a brick. I check, button immediately fires 100. Then he immediately starts staring at me intently in that "I'm looking strong but really want you to fold" kind of way. I put him on a mid pair and shove, he beats me into the pot. That needs to stop happening. He shows QJ and I'm drawing stone dead to the river. Jeesh. Also apparently I need to work on reading people.

So some of that was understandable and some of that was bad play. But I really wasn't too phased at this point. I was planning on being here for awhile, and the players around me weren't very good (or were typical for 1/2 NL). But what happened after that (you know, to lose the next 500) was one of the those "the poker gods are conspiring against you" days. I flopped top pair twice all day, and didn't win either pot. I had KK, QQ, JJ, and didn't win any of those pots. I was gambling some on preflop calls because there were a lot of decent pots built pre and just never hit anything. And then the final curse disguised as a gift was the psycho guy at my table who sat down. He raised to 20 dollars 90% of hands. The other 5-10% he raised bigger, $30, $50. He was just out of his mind. So I started calling with decent hands, because he'll inevitably stack off if I could hit a flop. But I couldn't. And I couldn't bluff, because he was never folding and therefore unbluffable. I kept making sure I had $200 behind for when I did hit. But I never did. Finally I picked up KK. I limped, with the intent to let psycho make a big raise. Except someone else raised to $12, and psycho just flatted. I put in $40 more, and psycho folded, the only time he ever folded pre.

The next hand I picked up AJ, and was just like screw it, I'm doing the same play, I'm guaranteed to be ahead of him. So I limped, he raised to 30, I put it another 100, which was pretty much what he had left. He called. The board came J75, 8, 6. And I thought, oh God. AJ, I called out. He showed down...J4o for a straight.

So at that point I only had 80 left, decided I was done reloading, I'd double it or go home. Bunch of limpers, button raises, I pick up AQ. He had KK. NH sir. I burned through $900 in four hours.

Anyway, I'm going back to the Horseshoe soon to change the karma of that place.

I am 27 today. Also 99 days until Bush leaves office. Party all around.

I'll be back to work for a full day tomorrow.