Vegas, Day Two

Had an absolutely atrocious cash game session today, losing a little over $300 at 1-2 at the MGM but having a fun time sitting with Chad, CK and even Blinders for the last few hours. But my cards were so awful, words can barely describe it. Over about 8 hours of cash game play, I received no AA, no KK, one QQ (which lost to CK's K5s), one JJ (which lost to Chad's AQ), and one TT (which lost to KJo). One AK which I won with a reraise before the flop. And I literally did not hit a single flop on the night. I must have seen (or known they were out there) maybe 15 or 20 flopped sets at my table during that time, but I literally -- no exaggeration -- did not flop top pair even a single time over 8 hours of play, let alone a set. Actually, that's not entirely true -- earlier in the afternoon I flopped broadway with JTs on an AKQ board. I bet the flop and got called by a guy who obviously had top pair or two pairs. The turn was a Jack, I bet and got called again, and then the river brought a lovely Ten, putting broadway on the board and giving me the split for my efforts. And sadly, that right there was the literal highlight of my entire 8-hour session -- getting uberfucked and splitting a pot at the river. Fun times.

I don't recall ever having this tremendously bad luck after the flop in addition to perhaps the worst run of starting cards in my entire poker history. Getting so few playable hands over 8 hours, I ended up making some stoopid river calls of medium-sized bets because I simply couldn't bring myself to lay down the three good hands I was dealt all day long. It sucked so hard, right now I'm siting here thinking that I might not even feel like playing in the World Series tomorrow at noon. There's just nothing like 8 hours of horrible cards, horrible luck and horrible decisions to make you question who you even think you are fooling by dropping 15 hundy on a silly little luck-based card game.

Oh and by the way, putting my lesson from last night into practice on the three good hands I was dealt all day (if you can even call TT and JJ "good"), I raised it up to 20 each time after a couple of limpers -- this is ten times the big blind now, mind you -- and still got called by K5s to lose half a buyin with my Queens, and by AQ to lose half a buyin with my Jacks.

So let's review. A solid 8 hours of play, only one true premium hand in pocket Queens (if you can even call that "premium"), which I raised to 10x, got called by K5s and lost to turn and river Kings. Two "semi-premium" hands in JJ and TT, each of which I also lost after raising it up to 10x the big blind, getting called by KJo and AQo and getting outflopped or out-turned in each. I flopped broadway, bet all three streets and ended up playing broadway on the board for the split. Oh, and I also lost half a buyin against a shorty when I called allin with A2 on an A23 board and learned I was up against A3. And I did not flop top pair even one time the entire night long. Fun times, did I mention that already?

Poker can suck it.

Right now, it feels like my odds of actually playing in the WSOP on Saturday are about 30%. I guess we'll have to see if that changes with a few hours of sleep to help erase the memory of today's pokering from my data banks.