Well, I had a very crazy 7th day of my one week challenge on Tuesday. I started the day up $1,136 and even though things hadn't gone exactly as I had planned throughout the week I still felt really good about how I was playing and I was all geared up to have a big day. I played a few tables of 5/10 along with my normal 2/4 and 3/6 tables. Absolutely everything that could go wrong did go wrong and before I knew it I was down over $2800 on the day and now I was stuck around $1,700 for the week now and I was only 3 hours into my session. I was already thinking about what the title of my blog was going to be..."D-MORE-UH-LIES-DUH" was what I was leaning towards using (say it out loud if you don't get it). I could feel my face getting hot and I wasn't thinking very clearly. I certainly wasn't in the mood to be making any big folds and I knew I wasn't going to be able to play my best if I kept playing.
I felt like my cards were face up just like I always do when I try to move up in limits. I remember when I felt like that about playing 2/4 NL and thought I would never be able to beat that limit. Simply put the players are better at 5/10 than they are at 2/4 and I either don't play well enough to beat it or I just haven't gotten comfortable enough with the higher stakes to be able to play well enough to beat it. It is a pretty horrible feeling when you feel like you can't pull the trigger when you want to make a play just because the money means more or you feel like the players know exactly what you are up to. Also, It is really amazing how being tentative or playing with scared money in poker can lead to you not playing your normal style that you know is a proven winner.
Anyway, I quit all of my tables and went to find something to eat and drink to see if I could regroup enough to be able to play any more poker for the day. I did a good job of settling down and decided that I would try to play some more poker, but I was only going to let myself play 2/4 NL. It wasn't easy to play smaller after getting stuck so much earlier in the day. Its not fun when you realize that no matter how hot you run you pretty much can't get even for the day since you are playing so much smaller. Well, I am glad I decided to play more, because I ran super hot and ended up almost getting all the way back to even playing only 2/4...I ended up playing great and only losing $122 on the day. That may be the best $122 I have ever lost.
I ended up having way worse results than I wanted to for the week, but I still ended up winning $1,014 and I did reach my goal of playing 35 hours (almost 36). I feel bad complaining about a $1,000 week, but it really is way below expectation. It makes it not so bad considering I was stuck $1,700 with 2 hours left to go in my week though :)
Well, even though I just took a vacation to regroup with poker playing 35 hours in a week and having sub par results I felt like I needed a small break from playing for a day or two. It just so happened to be perfect timing that Nick and his boss, Patrik Antonius, had a golf match with two of Patrik's friends that they had been planning for about a year. When they made the bet, Patrik's friend, Jani, was the best golfer of the four and Patrik, Nick, and Mikko were just starting to take golf seriously. If they would have played the match a year ago Jani and Mikko would have been the clear favorite, but Nick and Patrik have worked super hard on their games since then and it was a totally different story a year later.
The bet was a 36 hole match and they just added up the total strokes for both teams to determine the winner. They are all pretty good friends so the decided to keep the wager friendly and settled on a reasonable $200,000 to be paid by the losing team!! Nick and Patrik have a friend, Jimmy, that usually caddies and coaches them when they are playing in matches or just practicing. Jimmy is usually responsible for reading both of their putts, helping them both with club selection, cleaning both of their clubs and balls, and keeping both of their heads on straight in general. Since this match was going to be for so much money Nick decided to take me along as his coach/caddie so that Jimmy could focus on Patrik since he needs the most attention. It was pretty cool to be caddying in a match for $200,000, but not nearly as exciting as you might think. The reason it wasn't so exciting is because the match wasn't any near being a close match. The first day Nick shot 78, Patrick shot 82, Jani shot 86, and Mikko shot 88. Nick and Patrik had basically an insurmountable lead of 14 hots going into the second round. After 9 holes on the second day they were up 22 shots total and Jani and Mikko conceded the match and the $200,000. Nick gave me a generous $1,000 for helping out and it was a nice change of pace from poker. They were playing again today and Nick offered to have me help again, but I don't think I could have handled another day of it. Today they were planning on playing 36 holes and saying that these guy play slow is the biggest understatement of the year! The first day took us about 7.5 hours to play 18 holes and Nick and I got there about 3 hours before the match to practice. The second day took us about 3.5 hours to play only 9 holes. I guess I can't blame them for taking their time since they are playing for $200,000, but you have never seen 3 slower golfers than Patrik, Mikko, and Jani. I would have definitely gone again today if I thought I would improve their chances of winning, but I am positive that Mikko and Jani are drawing dead again today....which will cost them another $100,000. They are playing a best ball match for $50,000 and a scramble for $50,000.
I know this blog is really long already so I will just do a quick summary of my day of poker today... I played for about 5 hours and I was around even about 4.5 hours into my day. I finally ran good in a big pot where a guy turned a straight vs. my top set. We got it in on the turn and the board paired on the river and I won about a $2,000 pot. Ahhhh, it feels good to suck out once in a while :) Then I won a buy-in at 2/4 NL with JJ all-in preflop against 99. With my nice rush to end the day I ended up winning $1,496 and am off to a great start for the week.
This is too long and I am too hungry to proofread...deal with it.
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