Gah

Last night = never to be spoken of again.

I kinda wanted to play poker... but my head apparently wasn't really in it. Let's quickly cover my games:

9pm - Donk2Shark - I played well, then went into donkey-mode and gave away all my chips and went out early. At the same time, I was in a token game for the $75 token which I'd started earlier. Went out of that one in 10th after I tilted.

10pm - Riverchasers tourney - Again, started well, finished poorly. I think I was the first blogger out.

10:30pm - WWdN Not - Finished 8th out of 16. This is the one I will speak of.

Post Not - 0.25/0.50 NLHE cash game on Stars, where I promptly gave away my $30 stack when senor LAG kept hitting his crap despite my raises. Same old story. Also, I played like a pinball machine in an earthquake.

So, I was actually doing alright in the Not. I'd more-or-less turned off the tilt beast and kicked my inner donkey in the teeth. Played my usual game and range, and did alright. Made a few folds I wasn't sure of, but figured it was better to keep some chips in front of me than give them away meaninglessly. Then HighOnPoker ended up on my left.

Here's the thing with High - in these blogger games (and maybe in the non-blogger ones), he plays a pretty wide range of hands. He's aggressive with scare cards, or any sense of weakness. I seem to be his whipping boy of late. Every tournament in the last month or so where I've ended up at a table with him, I've been forced to tighten up against him, only to have him actually have a better hand than me, or suck out on me to knock me out when I finally get a hand.

Now, don't get me wrong, I've nothing against the guy or his style of play. In fact, I respect his play and his analysis of hands. He's obviously making a strong effort to constantly improve. I'm just offering the background for the following.

I had an M around 9 I think, and found AJo in front of me in the SB (positions may be off by a spot). No action in front of me and I raise 5x BB. High, in the BB, re-raises to put me all-in. Fed up with being pushed off time and again, I call... my M would have been small, and I know he's got a wide range. He of course flips over AQs, and flops the flush (which has one of my Jacks in it). Nothing more to help me, and I'm out.

Normally I'd fold AJo to a big raise, but this time I just couldn't. I was on a personal tilt, which is exactly what that style is trying to accomplish. I'm angry at myself for falling prey to it... if there's one thing I've been good at, it's NOT going after someone, and this time, I failed. Then again, I've never claimed I don't have a lot to learn.

That, or I was right in my earlier post and High DOES live 2 min in the future.