Doom Switch Avoided!

Since I posted last, I played 5 sessions. 8/16 in which I lost $98, a 20/40 session which midpoint I was up about $1ooo, but then ended up losing $300 instead. This was an interesting game, because two visitors from Chicago, who I have nick named twiddle dee and twiddle dumb were in the game. They have played at Oceans before, and I remember one of them, and apparently they have been playing every night this last week. They have taken to be the unpaid prop players this last week at Oceans.

Then I played 40/80 on Thursday night, and one of the players got very drunk after like 6 apple martinis. I ended up booking a 2 dime win in this game. Then I played the 20/40 on Friday and Saturday night.

Friday night, twiddle dee and twiddle dum were playing the 8/16 for some reason, and I skipped the 40/80 when my name was called, since I was tired. I booked a 750 win, and the game broke pretty early like 1:30am or so, and I didn't want to play the 40/80 so I went home.

Then on Saturday I had dinner with my wife at a nice restaurant in La Jolla. We've been there before, and we usually like their food, but this time it wasn't so good. We let the server know that we didn't think our appetizers were particularly good, and we ate very little of it. The manager stopped by and bought our alcohol for us, so that was nice. The entrees were just acceptable, nothing spectacular. Dessert was good. After that we did some grocery shopping and then headed home to relieve the baby-sitter. I know, we're boring, but my wife said she was tired and just wanted to sleep.

So I headed out to Oceans, and the 40/80 had already broken by the time I got there. I was first up for the 20/40, but I ended up waiting like 45 minutes or so before I got a seat. Twiddle dee and twiddle dumb were in the game, along with two other spectacular fish. It was simply one of the best, most awesome games I have ever been in. I won 3300 in a little over 3 hours. I would have stayed past 2:30 am, but I was tired and it was foggy out and I knew that if stayed too much longer, I wouldn't be able to safely drive home, so I racked up my 9 racks. I got my buddy to laugh at me, since I literally went and got one of those rolling trays used to hold drinks and laid my racks on the tray filled them up, and wheeled my rolling tray of racks of redbirds to the cage. I suppose I should have taken a picture. I busted twiddle dee and twiddle dumb as well. Not sure, how long they are in town for, nor how long their bankrolls will last. I don't think I will get out much this week, but we'll see.

Cue the Doom Switch

Hopefully not. I finally got around to entering all of my data from this years session into my database. Some wild swings as usual. I have been running pretty well recently and just to find out, I looked at my last 200 hours of live play. I am up a touch over 24k, in the last 200 hours, for an hourly rate of a shade over $120/hour. Not too shabby, but I'm still stuck for the year. That should let you know how much of a struggle it has been this year.

With the economy being bad, a lot of the fishy rich business owners haven't been coming in and playing as much as they used to. Thus it has been the regulars beating each other up, with the house making the vast majority of the money. According to Tommy Angelo, it costs about $20/hr to play mid-limit poker in the casino, and that sounds about right. I've logged a shade over 800 hours this year, so that 16 dimes right there. Sickening how much the drop really adds up if you play any significant amount of live poker.

In any case, I have been running and playing really well lately. Here's my last 10 sessions results:

+1375 20/40 5.5 hours
+110 8/16 0.75 hours
-1393 20/40 3.5 hours
+256 8/16 0.75 hours
-1499 20/40 3.0 hours
+6510 40/80 7.0 hours
+200 40/80 9.5 hours
+4185 40/80 4.5 hours
+2050 20/40 6.0 hours
+1220 40/80 3.0 hours

8 wins and 2 losses, I'll take it. I will continue to try to stay disciplined and not spew off chips. I have recently been nitting it up a lot preflop, and it seems to be working, as most of the players seem to be thinking that I am still playing my LAG style preflop, which I am still doing, but more so from late position only. However, Jed, noticed it last time I played, and said hey we have 3 seats open. He hasn't played a hand in like 30 minutes.

In other news, there was a Mike L sighting at Oceans. His sabbatical from poker seems to have come to an end, for better or worse. Hopefully he will beat up on the Commerce games, and not play the 40/80 regularly at Oceans, as he is not the easiest spot in the world to play against.

On a lighter note, here's a picture of one my poker buddies and his girlfriend. He's sweating her playing the 40/80, while drinking, well certainly not a manly drink.

Working like a dog

Been working a ton lately. I went to Idaho to go visit my parents on their ranch over the labor day weekend. Very calm and peaceful, and beautiful countryside. Nice place to visit and relax, wouldn't want to live there.

I have been on a mini-heater of late and am up 11 dimes since about mid-August. Hope to get out tonight, but I have been working late every night this week so I am pretty tired. We shall see.