Running Bad Is No Fun

Triple draw is a tough game. I've spent the last week or so just getting completely crushed. It hasn't been like this in a while, and I kind of had an inkling that I might be due for some good old fashioned variance. It's frustrating wading through starting hands like 2KJ96 over and over again and then finally getting something decent like 257QK. I'll play it straight up, not trying to get tricky, but just trying to get value, or essentially raising and re-raising pre-draw 1. Then I brick-brick, maybe get lucky to get to the second draw and hit a wheel card, which will usually result in drawing 1 against a pat hand which is usually beatable only to pair or brick the last draw. This also can result in the huge tilt factor that I have prided myself in not hitting. Occasionally it rears its ugly head and I try to calm myself. My other favorite draw/hand, while I'm ranting, is when I pat a marginal hand like a J/T/9 and even and 87 type hand and get drawn out on continuously.

What is making matters even worse at this point is that the games have gotten extremely good. The play is super loose and there have been a number of tables going with lots of players that I haven't seen before. They're the kind that LOVE to limp into pots, and occasionally pat a starting hand like 97654 all the way down, which can do wonders to your self-control and confidence. I still haven't figured out what to do in a situation where you have 257xx in the sb and there are 2-3 limpers. I've played it both ways profitably AND unsuccessfully, for big pots won and loss and vis-a-versa.

I have actually shown a small profit in the few SnG's that I have played this month, despite taking awful bad beats along the way. This has kept my confidence high, and the bankroll growing, just not at the rate that it was last month. So be it though. The important thing is that I have still been having fun playing and I guess I am trying to learn a bit at the same time. One thing is for sure, the hours I have logged this month have surpassed last month, so that may have something to do with the results as well.

I won the SSPC February event on Saturday. I almost didn't get to play it, but it was great that I could since Mo felt like I deserved a break/stress-reliever. There was a total of 20 players this month so the double points will help me hopefully get to the TOC again this year. I need all I can get because I foresee not playing in a number of tourneys in the months ahead since we have our child on the way.

Moving along to more exciting news, we had our first doctors appointment since Mo was allowed to do her bed rest at home instead of the hospital. Everything went very well. The baby passed all of his physical tests which include breathing (practicing of course) for 30 seconds straight, moving his fingers/toes, etc. We are still taking it one day at a time, but we are really hoping that Mo can get on some kind of modified bed rest so that she might be able to log some hours working from home. Even if she can't though, we are trying to stay positive and are getting exciting for this little guys arrival.

Finally, I have acquired a few new music releases from this year, and all of which have been really great, these include albums by Vampire Weekend, American Music Club, Beck (Odelay Deluxe Edition), moe., Sam Amidon, Jazz Liberatorz (the first hip-hop/rap album I've bought in a long time that was not something from my youth), and The Soundtrack from the movie "Juno".