Excuses, Excuses

Played in the (new) weekly $30+3 Tucson MPT Invitational tonight. Twenty three starting players, all of very advanced abilities. Ten minutes into game, I busted out in 20th place.

Boy, am I mad at myself for how I played. Hell, I probably shouldn’t have logged in at all. I played this afternoon and won a $5 SnG that ended in an epic, 20-minute long heads up match where I was outchipped 3:1 at one point. I played really well then, but tonight… Jesus.

So what happened this evening? Well, the truth was that my head wasn’t screwed on right at the beginning of the game. A big part of it was family stuff. I got home from work late after battling awful traffic. I walked in the door and instantly had an argument with my son about his internet usage and something else stupid related to the dog. My wife was also frantic about Xmas baking and how her cake didn’t come out of the pan and yada yada. My daughter is hooting in the other room, wanting attention. I grab a quick dinner and then try to put all this out of my mind as I sit down to play…

But then the phone rang just as the game started. Did I know my car was eligible for a $25 oil change? Goddammed telemarketers. The jerk then calls back to ask why I hung up on him. Seriously. After I yelled into the phone and hung up again, I tried to refocus, but it was too late. My calm, focused self was nowhere to be seen.

Okay, those are the excuses.

So what was the real reason I blew it? Sure, there was a lot of stress going on in my life, but, honestly, there always is. This was nothing new. So what was it? After a lot of soul searching, I believe it was just the idea of playing at the $33 table, against really good players, including the guru himself. Kinda psyched myself out, actually. I never should have signed up. And after I did, I really should have just gotten up from the computer once the game started and walked away for ten minutes and breathed deeply. But I didn’t.

Instead, on one of the first hands of the game I called a 3xBB bet from a mid position raiser with K8s on the BB. WTF? Let me repeat that: WHAT THE F*CK!?! Am I stupid? Do I even know how to play this game? Flop came rags, so I check-folded. I asked myself what the hell was I doing? But there was apparently no answer. The tilt had begun…

Two hands later, I pick up ATs on the button. Folds to me so I attempt a steal-raise. SB comes back over the top at me just enough to make calling his raise correct. I do so, the flop comes rags, he bets big, I fold. The tilt is increasing…

Seven hands later I’m on the button again with AK. There’s a limper in front of me, I pop it up with a pot sized raise. The same SB who bet into me before raises. The limper folds. I reraise. SB re-reraises. Next thing you know I’ve got all my money in the center of the felt preflop. WITH FRIGGIN’ ANNA!!! AND AN M OF LIKE 30!!

The tilt was complete.

The fact that the SB turned over KK to KKick my ass is almost irrelevant. I should not have played tonight. I should have just waited for next week. I violated the guru’s commandment numero uno: Thou shall be prepared to play. But I wasn’t, and yet I played anyway. And boy, did I play idiotically. I had no reason to get my money all-in that early into the tournament. It was a deep stack game and my M was huge. What was I thinking? Oh, that’s right. I wasn’t.

Sigh.

All-in for now…
-Bug