I Almost Quit Poker Last Friday

With the fun of poker fading away for me the last couple months, I haven't really been playing much. Lately, it has been only two or three sessions a week. And with the bad results I have been having, the time spent is getting smaller and smaller. Last week started off all too familiar. I played a total of 34 hands on New Years Day. I lost 3 buy-ins. Two were hands in which I flopped two pair after seeing a free flop from the blinds, then my donkish opponent calling my big bets all the way down to hit a flush in one hand, and a Open ended straight on the other. The third buy-in was with me holding Aces against a 80% VP$IP donk, and getting it all-in PF with him holding KJ. Flop was QJJ.

I didn't play again until Friday morning, and lost another buy-in in about 150 hands. That is when I decided that I would play that night one last time, too see if I could find any more fun in poker. I decided to go out with a poker filled night full of SNGs, Tournies and cash games. I hadn't played any SNGs or MTTs for a while, so maybe this would be fun.

The night started off good with my playing some of my regular cash games at 100NL Tribeca. I quickly made 2.5 buy-ins turning the day into a positive day. Then at 9PM, I joined a couple of the bigger tournaments going on. I joined the Nightly $25,000 guaranteed $24+2 at Full Tilt, a $15 MTT at Poker Stars with over 1000 people in it, and a 180 person $20 SNG at Stars.

The 180 person SNG didn't fair too well, and I busted out halfway through. But the other two went quite well, as I cashed in both. I went out in 88th place in the stars for a small profit of $15.

The Full Tilt MTT ended even better, with me finishing in 15th place for a nice profit of $320! By far my best MTT finish in a long time! It was actually a lot of fun. I was pretty happy with my play, though I did have quite a few suckouts on my way to 15th place. My AQ beat KK with 4 tables left. Earlier, when I was s short stack, I tripled up with KQ against JJ and AQ when a King hit the river. It was nice being on the giving end of some bad beats for once. I think the poker gods must have known I was thinking of quitting, so they gave me a few bones too keep me dragging along :)

I'm not too proud with the hand I went out on though. I had been getting played back at a few times with 3 tables left. I had folded AQ to an all-in Re-raise, and easily folded two other steal attempts to all-in re-raises. So with 15 left, I found KQ, and I hadn't played a hand in a while. I was in Early position, so I should have just mucked it, but I tried to steal the blinds, and again, someone came over the top putting me all-in. I should of folded, but I was getting 2-1 on my money. I called and they flipped up AQ. Ouch, Dominated! Wouldn't you know it, but a King came on the flop! But my joy only lasted two seconds, as the turn was an Ace, sealing my fate.

Another poker blogger ended up taking 2nd place in this thing. CrackinAces over at The SNG Machine. Though, he wins a tournament every week, so isn't a surprise to see him up there ;)

So I don't think I am going to quit poker at this time. I think I'll actually start playing some SNGs. The SNGs at Tribeca are full of crappy players. You'd think I could turn a profit playing those.

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I know I haven't been posting too much lately, mainly because I don't think I have too much to say about poker these days. So maybe I'll start talking about other things. I think I'll start talking about some of the TV shows I watch, among other things like music, movies, and sports. Turn this thing into a Poker & Entertainment blog.

Some of my favorite Shows are starting again real soon. 24, The Shield, Sopranos, etc... Should be fun.

Cheers!