Throws Like A Girl

Don’t know what to say today, other than I had an AWFUL weekend playing poker. I lost 10.5% of my bankroll. Yes, 10.5%. This should be devastating to me (and it was, yesterday anyway) but today I’m kind of “oh, well” about the whole thing. It’s kinda like a sick joke that I was the butt of, and I’m just somehow shrugging it off this morning. Tilt is a funny thing. It’s almost like the X-stages of death. Denial, anger, etc… Guess I’m in the acceptance phase this morning. Or maybe I'm just still too numb to process it fully.

This giant snowball of tilt was started down the hill by bad beats, plain and simple. I had aces cracked by kings, another (!) set of queens run over by a straight, and a few more beats that I can’t even remember. By that point, I was down a fair bit and should have jumped off the ride. Instead, I went chasing, trying to recover my losses, which only exacerbated the situation. I lost at low dollar sit and goes, high dollar sit and goes, 6max limit, 9-handed limit, nickel-dime no-limit, you name it. If it could be a sponge for my money, I fired into it. Can you say bloodbath? In the end I was like a little kid in a room full of bullies, saying, "here, take my candy!"

Guess I just have to get back on the horse today and try again. In a strange, way, I’m actually looking forward to it. I think I know how to play this game, but yesterday I clearly demonstrated I know how to lose at the game. The question now is whether I can get back on a winning track. We’ll see.

In other news, I just read about an amazing feat that Annette Obrestad pulled off early last year. Annette, for those not in the know, is a European teenage phenom who is tearing up the poker circuit on that side of the pond. At age 19, she’s already won more money than Annie Duke has in her entire career. Annette won the inaugural London WSOP event, plus a handful of others. She also reportedly began her online poker career with zero dollars in her bankroll, parlaying some freeroll wins into millions.

Anyway, the feat she pulled off was the following (text copied from Cardplayer Magazine): “Obrestad made internet news when she played a $22 buy-in 180-player tournament without looking at her cards (she covered them up with a piece of paper and admitted to peeking once during a critical all in). She wanted to show the importance of position and relentless pressure, which is her calling card, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that she won the event. She’s simply that good.”

I am blown away by this. Completely blown away. I mean, what the hell kind of poker am I playing? It’s clearly not the same game that she is. I’ve been taught to be a tight (and aggressive) player, which I thought meant being selective of which hands I played in different positions. Yes, of course, I’ve read before that your own two cards don’t matter as much as other factors (such as who you’re playing against), but evidently those two little cards don’t matter at all. Holy shit. I would love to watch her play and see how she does this. I tell you, I am blown away. (And just wait until she’s old enough to play legally in the USA; watch out Phil Helmuth, I predict she’s going to surpass you – quickly – as the leader in WSOP bracelets.)

Gotta run...
24-Hour Bankroll Change: -10.5% (ouch)
All-in for now...
-Bug