SNOOPY THEROUX'S WEIRD THURSDAY

With festival shenanigans at the Broadway and Grosvenor Walsall, I’ve been hard pushed to supplement my income with online sessions, but after Jerome Bradpiece took gold on Sunday, I finally received that chance. Following a much needed rest and a couple of days of catching up with admin duties, I booted up the lappie on Wednesday evening, ready for some hot 6-handed action. Unfortunately, due to a combination of fatigue (I’m really not sleeping or eating well at the moment), bad play (as soon as I check-raised an Ace high Flop with Kings when I was sure he had an Ace I knew I was playing crap) and bad luck (too many cold decks to bore you with), I managed to lose nearly a grand of my January profit.

But, undeterred and knowing that times to play were few and far between, I gave it another shot the next day, confident that I was feeling fresher than the day prior. However, whilst trawling though some recent forum pms, I found one message from Stuart Fox which read, in basic terms, “been reading your blog, gamble, give it a shot, I know you can do it”, which pretty much implied that I was capable of playing higher.

Although I’m a slave to discipline, I actually agreed, and for the first time in a while believed that I should brush aside my initial plans and up the stakes. For too long recently I’ve been plugging away at $1/2 for very little reward. I know I can play $4/2, I know I have won money at that level (I profited for 6 months ffs!) and I know that it’s probably an easier game. So, with that in mind, I jumped up a level and gave it a shot. However, the rise in stakes didn’t change my fortune and, after running Kings into Aces, and then a flush into a bigger flush in a hand that I’d raised pre-flop with suited connectors, I found myself another several hundred down and anything I’d earned in my few 2007 session down the pan in just a few hours.

At this point, and don’t ask me why, I thought “fuck it, why not have a real go, give it a crack and play a couple of big tables instead of four $2/4 tables.” Yes, the logic doesn’t quite work like that and bigger tables aren’t quite within my bankroll, but I’m short on time these days, I don’t have time to grind, so why not roll the dice just this once.

Anyhow, roll the dice I did, sitting down with $800 on two $5/10 tables, the biggest limit I have ever played – so if anything, it was going to be an experience of sorts. After playing tight for a while, I noticed two things. Firstly, the action was pretty slow and it was obvious that people just waited for hands to bust the idiots rather than mix it up and secondly, one of my tables had a player that was an absolute suicidal maniac. At one point, I saw him get over a grand in pre-flop with Q-J!!! For some reason, this numpty just wanted to shove it in with anything and hope for a double up. Then, for some unknown reason, another mug bluffed off all his chips to the calling station’s Aces, giving him over 4k – I was drooling at the prospect, because although he’d slowed down somewhat, he was still playing every hand in sight.

But surprisingly, my encounter didn’t come from him, but one of the tight players. I, and possibly mistakenly, managed to get my $800 in with Qd-9d on a Ten high Flop (two diamonds). Mateyboy had Aces and I hit my Flush on the Turn for an $1,800 scoop, bizarrely one of my biggest cash pots ever. I think by the time he moved all-in, I didn’t quite have the pot odds to call, and deep down I knew my overcards were useless, but I thought that if I could just get lucky this one time I could clean Mr 4k out for all he’s got.

Anyhow, although I took a few hundred off the numpty with a set of tens, (he called me down on Flop and Turn with A-6 (Ace high!) on a Q-T-9-2-K board), someone else took all his spondoolies and the game was officially dead. So, I sensibly (although I doubt any of my actions that Thursday could be deemed sensible) left the table with my 2 grand and cashed out. I’d got lucky with my flush draw, made some of my money back and experienced life at the $5/10 level – I had no complaints but thought it best to withdraw all my money before I did something even more stupid.

So there you have it, my weird Thursday, pretty out of character I think you’d agree but with my upped Blonde schedule, it has become clear to me that I simply don’t have time to grind. At the same time, I realise that if I’m going to play the $2/4 or above games, I need to be fit and healthy and prepared to make notes due to the fewer number of players (this wasn’t the case pre-ban), and at the moment, my mental state and lack of time is making it too difficult to fulfill these most basic of objectives.

Considering this, I have decided to take a short break. During that break, I need to think carefully about what I’m going to do regarding online poker because at the moment I’m loitering in the middle. I know I could make a decent amount of money if I had the time, but I don’t, and I can’t just keep popping in and out because I’m rarely of healthy mind to give it my best and the pressures of knowing that I don’t have too many sessions available to earn a buck are affecting my game.

When I know where I want to play, what levels I want to play at and how often I will be playing, then I’ll work out my strategy and ensure that I can give it 100%, because at the moment, it’s becoming a vastly unenjoyable experience.

I’m now working pretty much full time for Blonde, and it’s true what I said in my first ever blog entry, poker and work – they just don’t mix.