We Interrupt These Trip Reports...

Yah, yah... I've got days more to go in the reports. I'm hoping to get day 5 and 6 up tonight. I've just been distracted. The Toronto International Film Festival is fast approaching and I need to pick my films before Friday. It doesn't help that their website is fucked up and not saving my choices so I can schedule, whittle, and review them.

Anyway, congrats to LJ for her postively amazing run of late. QOD has gone and cashed for over $12,000 in 3 tournaments over the past few weeks. 3rd in the 32k twice for over $9k, and another $3200 live at the Venetian over the weekend. Damn. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't insanely jealous. I needs to win me some big money.

Yes, this will be a poker post. I haven't put one up in a while.

The last two nights have been an example of my mood swings in poker. Monday I played in the MATH, the 50-50, and a cash table with a bunch of bloggers (starting with Fuel) . The night started well. I donked off some cash in a Tier 1, but won another for the MATH entry. I cashed in the $2 rebuy to the 50-50 and then again in the $3 rebuy. Both times with pretty minimal investments. ($4 in the $2 rebuy, and $9 in the $3). The $3 cash gave me $55 due to my already winning an entry in the $2. Not a terrible ROI.

So I'm feeling good. I'd had doubts about my game after a day of going through the motions previously. The MATH is fine, but I'm really more interested in the cash game at this point. Mostly because I have have my bankroll on the table. The 50 was a donkfest and I got bad beats laid down on me all over the place.

Then I lost interest in all of it. The 50, the MATH, the cash. I rapidly went out of the tourneys, but stayed in the cash. Distracted by blog posts, TV, etc.. I watched by profit dwindle and become a loss, and finally I quit when everyone else left. It was completely obvious. I just started playing crap and calling with nothing. I'd taken some solid play over a couple hours and wasted it. I was pissed at myself.

Then last night I wasn't going to play. I had other things to do, and I started doing them. Then Kat and I started chatting and I decided to play in the Monkey Tourney (formerly the Wheatie)on Stars. I didn't even know about the Bodog game, but they don't take Canadian money anyway. You know what? I had a blast. Once upon a time, I knew how to play this game. I didn't rely on ridiculous streaks of cards, and last night I reverted back to that style. I bluffed, stole, restole, and got lucky when I needed it, and cashed. I left in a good mood, having spent a couple hours chatting and playing for fun. I had forgotten this was recreational.

We even converted some poker forum guy into a hammer playing maniac! He started off with "why are you playing crap?" which of course endeared him to all of us. By the time the bubble burst, he was playing The Hammer like a pro. Hell, he even crippled me by re-raising a steal with the damned thing and scaring me off. I thought, "Hammer? Naw, he's just learned it, no way he's already re-raising all-in from the BB with it." How wrong I was.

Of course, I was also playing the Stars version of the 50-50, and the $75 Token Frenzy on Tilt at the time... neither of which went well (how many bad beats can you get in one night?). But I didn't care.

So here's hoping last night marks a turnaround, where I start having fun again with this game - win or lose. I'll sign up for the Mookie tonight, and intend to have a blast. I doubt I'll be playing anything else though... I've got a ton of shit that needs to get done, including those trip reports.