When Donkeys Languish

Over a month without posting must be some kind of recent record, but no one seems to be complaining or concerned. I’m definitely in a bit of a funk as far as the old poker table goes. It’s hard to discern whether my play is a result of that funk or is the cause of it. Regardless, I feel like I continue to make strides toward becoming a better player and at the same time I still have holes in my game through which you can drive the proverbial truck.

It would be one thing if these were completely new holes that develop as my game changes and I deal with the differences in playing a tougher group of opponents. But, for the most part, they are just the same holes that get patched, blow open again and have to be repatched. Right now I’m calling off too much money in situations where there’s a good chance that I’m beat. Or I’m finding myself unable to believe that, for example, my opponent actually called a pre flop raise out of position with the one crappy hand that has me beat; which, of course, they do time and again.

The biggest hole of all is bad bankroll management, which leads me to build up a decent roll and then piss it away by playing too high for too long. It’s fine to “take a shot” every once in a while, but when I empty the chamber firing shot after shot and don’t happen to capitalize on any of them I eventually have to reload or drop way back down and grind my way back up. And that’s where I find myself today. Not broke by any stretch, but well down from where I was a couple of months ago.

The money’s not the issue per se, although the fact that reloading just became significantly more challenging thanks to our fine federal government is a bit of a bother. I have plenty of money and if I lost my entire roll a few times over it really wouldn’t be noticed. It’s the fact that I know the issue and should be able to manage it better, but I just don’t. Plain and simple.

So right now my play is schizophrenic at best. On the one side, I have days or tournaments in which I play like crap and call off my stack in situations where I should be folding (or should never have gotten into in the first place). On the other, when I do play well it just seems that I can’t win a race or fade somebody’s three outs.

Other than a first in that $3 MTT last month, my other big online poker successes have been a double cash (my first ever, WTF?) in the FTP Daily Doubles. Oh, and a second in this week’s HORSE edition of the Dookie for a cool $16.50, baybee. I now have a higher net in the Dookie for the year than the #5 player on the leader board, which is nice.

Meh. Standard. [Insert your favorite Internet cliché here.]

Some bloggers, on the other hand, are having their way with the WSOP.

Congrats to LJ and CK for a couple of close-but-no cigar cashes and to sprstoner for his nifty third-place payday in event #13. I still am bitter at the guy for the sick beat he put on me in the only tournament hand I think I’ve ever played against him, but I’ll suck it up and hand him the props he is due.

Another blogger with a nice, albeit indirect, score at the WSOP is Jamyhawk, a fellow St. Louisan who had a 1/52 slice of event #28 winner Mike Eise as a result of a series of WSOP qualifiers that a local group ran over the course of the last year. Pre-tax that amounts to about $12K by my calculations.

That's that, my friends. I'll try to spew out another post or two before I head to the Swiss Alps for a two-week vacation over the last half of July.