Tomorrow is the big day. I am entered in the Rock N' Roll Half Marathon. All the hoopla has me nervous, despite the fact I am just doing this for a hoot. I am not trying to go fast or get a qualifying time or win my age group. Strangely for me, I am just going with the flow.
Things have been so busy because my to-do list is so long. I spent more than an hour in frustration trying to upgrade to a smart phone. The person at Best Buy, a dealer for AT&T got a strange error message and then talked to an AT&T rep for over half an hour before they concluded that I had to go into a corporate store because my sim card was from Cell One (which was purchased by AT&T). An hour it took to find this out. I love what technology provides us...but it comes at a high price.
At the poker table, people used to chat. Of course they sometime still do...especially when they hear I am from Alaska. They inevitably want my opinion of Sarah Palin. It is frustrating because she is so divisive. People hate her or love her and I, frankly, find her uninteresting. I think she was a good govenor and rooted out the corruption of the Murkowski administration. I think she should have served out her term despite the harrassment she was getting with the frivolous lawsuits. She wasn't effective after her run for the vice presidency and probably did the people of Alaska a service by quitting. I still don't like a quitter.
See...I was going to complain about how smart phones become the focus of live poker players so they don't interact with each other and Sarah Palin got in the way. I still want one...a smart phone that is. I can just see me staring at the little screen watching Glee instead of paying attention at the table.
Last night, after more than six hours of play, I was up $62. There was some drama that got me there...I tried to bluff a guy and lost over $100...and I hit a full house on the flop that developed into quads and I recovered. I'm pretty sure I didn't need that fourth six. Pat was not happy because his table wasn't letting him come back from some bad cards and he wanted to move from the Wynn to the Venetian. I had no problem with that so over we went for our last hour of play.
Did I misplay this hand? I had pocket nines and called a $25 reraise because I was the fifth caller and we ended up with six for a pot of $150 pre-flop. The flop was King, nine, rag--all hearts. It was checked to me with one player behind. I had $150 left and I went all-in. I was called by one guy. We turned our cards over and he had a king and an Ace of hearts. I was ahead, but he had lots of outs which he hit on the turn...a three of hearts. My pair that would make me a full house did not come so I lost my stack.
Should I have let him draw to his heart for free? Should I have been more wary of the flush? Was I going to have to call anyway to draw to my full house? I would have been able to get away after the heart came on the turn and therefore reduced my losses if I had just made a strong bet at the pot (which would have been called).
Here is the heart-breaking hand that happened 15 minutes later against the same guy. I raise to $11 in early position with pocket rockets. I get 4 callers. The flop is Ace, rag, nine, double suited. I bet $20 and the villain goes all in. I am elated, except that he knocks out everyone else. I call and he turns over trip nines. I show my aces and the turn is nothing and the river is the one outer---a nine. Sick!!!! There goes another two hundred dollars. I am seriously on tilt.
In about an hour I lose $362 for a night's loss of exactly $300. I wish I had gone home.
Part of the reason I want the smart phone is so I can immediately write down the hands that I want to review. I find that my memory of the hand is inadequate for me to give a fair assessment of my play, so I need to write down the details at the table. Everyone will think I busy texting my friends, when in fact I will be evaluating and learning (instead of tilting...I hope).
No poker for me tonight...early to bed and early to rise so I can go jogging with 20,000 of my best friends.
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