The worst feeling in poker has to be sitting a table with stack and stacks of money all around begging to be won, lots of big pots, and absolutely no ability to get any of it.

I killed some time last night on Full Tilt playing pot limit omaha. As I folded crap hand after crap hand, the money in play just got bigger and bigger, to the point where two thirds of the table had at least twice the max buyin in play. A couple players were pushing 4x. Every hand was raised preflop and the pots were juicier than fruit.

Fold, fold, fold. Why not mix it up? I'll tell you why not: Q732 four suited and a table full of loose aggressive players don't mesh too well, unless you just hate money.

So frustrating.

I kept waiting and waiting for something playable. I would have taken a hand with a dangler if only I'd had *three* cards that worked together and some kind of reasonable position. I would have played low connectors out of position. Something. Anything. Anything but those horrible unsuited disconnectors!

It was not to be.

After a few hours the money left and the table refilled with normal sized stacks. Once that happened, the Full Tilt RNG decided to switch things up by giving me a string of solid starting hands that completely airmailed the board. It's almost as if there's someone pulling the levers, making sure the board is low connected red cards when I have black paint. Once that happens you should - and you can take this advice to the bank - quit playing.

FUFTPRNG.

I'm always surprised at how difficult change can be. Actually, let me elaborate on that: Making changes isn't all that hard. Making those changes stick is what seems almost impossible. Inertia may be the most powerful force on earth other than gravity.

This really has nothing to do with poker, although I suppose that it certainly could. Inertia certainly describes my game - when I do play, I play the same things. I make the same mistakes. Every time I've resolved to go LAG, I end up retreating back into my weak-tight shell. Whatever I do, once I return to status quo ante I get the same lousy results, which I then deal with by not playing for a while.

There are many things I need to change, and I'm trying. And failing (for the most part). But without trying I know that the inertia will eventually result in disaster.

Your usual BBT4 lineup continues, with games tonight, tomorrow and Wednesday. Play well.

TGIF.

Waiting on the weekend for some poker, although I certainly could have played last night while following the 6 OT UConn-Syracuse game. Instead, I give you unrelated randomness.

Dinner last night was chinese - fried rice, the ramen noodles of chinese food. My fortune cookie message was "You will be successful someday". I guess all the optimists at the fortune cookie message writing outfit got downsized or something.

Then there are people that should be downsized. The AP headline writer yesterday came up with "Bristol Palin's daughter and fiance split". Um. Bristol Palin is about 18. Her child is male. And while I'm not entirely sure about cultural norms up there in Alaska, I doubt that engagements before your first birthday are terribly common.


Until next time, ponder your options for playing in the BBT4, presented by the fine folks at Full Tilt, where I have points (!!!!) (once the standings get updated) ... but no winnings.

If I looked back at the comments on my most recent post, I would find one from Smokkee that said that you can't win if you don't play. This is true.

It is also true that you can waste a lot of time by playing and not winning.

I made my initial appearance in the BBT4 last night, playing the Skilllllz Game. Pot Limit Omaha, high only. As a semi-accomplished Omatard (tm), I figured this might be my game. Also, since it wasn't a split pot game, I thought it might end at a reasonable hour.

Wrong. So very very wrong.

84 donkeys.

If I were looking to do a detailed writeup of my play, that writeup would be the most boring ever. I've never folded so much in my life, at least not at PLO. I got a double up plus when I flopped a straight early and it somehow held. From there, nothing much else happened. I folded garbage, then folded some more garbage.

I'm serious. I finished 15th and collected exactly one knockout bounty.

Things ended appropriately. My attention span was gone after an hour. Nearing the end of hour three (yawn), I picked up AQQ5 double suited. Not great but by far the best hand I'd seen in a while*. Folded to me. F-Train in the big blind was the only caller of my raise. Ace on the flop, otherwise not favorable. I decided to play aggressive - and ran right into his flopped top set of jacks. I turned a better set - queens - but that filled a gutshot for the Train. No board pairing on the river and that was it. I see that F-Train used those chips to help him win the whole thing about an hour later. Well done.

So there you have it. Three hours of play. No cash. Some points. Very very tired. Today is going to suck.

Good luck to those playing the Mookie tonight. I'm hoping to be sound asleep before it kicks off.

* It's a definite leak for me, overplaying the "best hand I've seen in a while".

Poker hiatus continues. I've yet to play a BBT4 event. I also have some Stars tickets gathering dust. A lot of it is a perceived time crunch, but like most of my issues it's really all in my head.

I've spent the evening doing some reading. I picked up a book by a sociologist on how society has gotten to where it is today (using the 50s as something of a baseline). It's interesting stuff and thought-provoking in ways that my usual "diet" of internet and historical non-fiction isn't. Of particular interest is the casual way that the term "ponzi scheme" is applied to various aspects of our economy. We may be witnessing the unraveling of those very things at internet speed.

This is a time of high anxiety for a lot of people, and I'm certainly no exception. I have serious doubts that I'll make it though unscathed.

A brief poker-related interlude as I take a break from
penning the score to Grease 6 1/2: Everything You Hate
About High School-Themed Musicals...

Three events down in the BBT4. Al has a results page up (thanks for the tip CK) and it looks like your early winners are RakeFeeder, Shabazz Jenkins and Hefffmike. Nice job folks.

Tuesday nights mean Skillz Series. 9:30 ET. I actually surfed over to learn that tonight is Stud H/L. Double stacks. Sounds painful. Who knows, I may actually play even though that would be a terrible idea. The fact that it's Stud H/L also reminds me of another terrible idea - Dawn Summers taking Lent off from blogging.


I actually watched a half hour of poker on TV last night for the first time in forever. I may have "seen" about that much of the WSOP last year, but it really has been eons since I've watched any. This was the WPT Bellagio, where the final six had Phil Ivey, Ted Forrest, Doyle Brunson, Kirill Gerasimov and Alan Goehring (there was also some accountant). I stopped watching when Goehring picked off both Forrest and Brunson in one hand, all in preflop. Nice hand, donkeys.

Takeaway: Yeah, production values haven't changed much on the WPT telecasts over the years.


Tomorrow is the Mookie. Your next chance at punching your ticket and getting one step closer to the WSOP.

That's about it for today. I've got spring fever and got it bad.

I saw a blurb over on the PokerStars blog that said they'd signed up their 20 millionth account.

I immediately wondered - is that gross or net? How did they adjust for, say, Zeejustin?


Anyone know if there's a handy site recapping BBT4 results? I'm sure that Al or Full Tilt will have standings somewhere, but I'm lazy. I also haven't read any "ZOMG I WON" posts yet this morning, so my curiosity level is high.