Pretty rough day today. Crucial hands to start things off.

Early stages. Raise 3x with QQ and see a flop of Td6s2d. I bet out fully expecting to get mashed by TT/66. One opp calls. Turn Qs. Yippee I think. Bet 3/4 pot hoping he either had it or was drawing. He flats. River, 5s. Push, call. Opp shows A4ss.

Flopped air called cont. bet, turned a flush draw, called off half his stack and hit.

Next hand, 2 from the bubble. 2nd in chips. Big stack who is beyond awful limps the button. I check 44 in the SB. Flop is Js-6h-4h. Check to big stack who bets 500 into a pot of 300. I only have 2200 and shove, he instacalls with Q5hh and hits his flush on the turn.

These two hands put me at 0-6 on the week with a flopped set. Try and wrap your heads around that for a minute. You limp or make a small raise 10-20 small pairs a day hoping for that juicy opportunity when you hit that set 1:8.5 times. Sometimes it feels like you went 50 pairs without hitting one. Then when you do, you lose 6 in a row to a flush draw/straight draw/jack shit. I actually had a week once where I lost set over set 4 times!!

I didn't really make this blog to bitch. It's poker and it happens. Everybody runs bad for varying lengths of time and I've been very fortunate to never have gone busto on my roll. I do however get the feeling that when I'm running good it's due to having my big hands actually hold up and not necessarily getting lucky. When I'm running bad it's just an avalanche of diarhea all at once.

Even my winning sessions yesterday I was 0-3 getting it all-in with AA.

That continued again today. Had a guy on the button and 4-bet shove over me with K9 off against my AA. Flop = QJT fml

The worst was that today I was, and this is a mouthful, 0-2 getting it all-in with my opponent dominated and flopping the right pair.

Okay let me explain. Called a SS all-in with A7 and he shows A3. Flop = 7-Q-4. Yahtzee right? He's drawing dead to..... well there's the 2.... there's the 5. Fuck.

Really important hand on the bubble of an 18-man with everyone is shortstacked at 300/600 blinds. Sitting 2nd in chips when the worst player at the table jams. I call with AK and he shows AT. Flop = K-9-5. Soon as I saw the flop I knew it was coming. Turn Q, river J. Christ almighty. Bubbled that one.

As I'm typing this up I'm finishing my last session. Just bubbled a 8-game sng where I had the SS all-in on a flop of 7-6-6-5 in LHE. I had 9-7 to his 44. 8-ball won't help him obviously so he's drawing to 6 outs. River 3 helps him double up and I soon hit the rail with another devastating $0.

Close to the bubble of a 3-table sng and this pretty much sums up my whole day. For the day, 1/12 on flips:

PokerStars Game #35329001560: Tournament #212393268, $5.00+$0.50 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (300/600) - 2009/11/14 0:20:38 ET
Table '212393268 3' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 2: HankKwan (2836 in chips)
Seat 3: Pyroshouse (7439 in chips)
Seat 4: RaidenRadio (3855 in chips)
Seat 5: HeyMan07 (8430 in chips)
Seat 6: bogie78 (7181 in chips)
Seat 7: atx45 (3443 in chips)
Seat 8: papaguya (1916 in chips)
Seat 9: Mickyboy333 (5400 in chips)
HankKwan: posts the ante 50
Pyroshouse: posts the ante 50
RaidenRadio: posts the ante 50
HeyMan07: posts the ante 50
bogie78: posts the ante 50
atx45: posts the ante 50
papaguya: posts the ante 50
Mickyboy333: posts the ante 50
Pyroshouse: posts small blind 300
RaidenRadio: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RaidenRadio [Tc Ts]
HeyMan07: folds
bogie78: folds
atx45: folds
papaguya: raises 1266 to 1866 and is all-in
Mickyboy333: folds
HankKwan: folds
Pyroshouse: folds
RaidenRadio: calls 1266
*** FLOP *** [Qh 3c 9d] He had AQ

PokerStars Game #35329021440: Tournament #212393268, $5.00+$0.50 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (300/600) - 2009/11/14 0:21:28 ET
Table '212393268 3' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 2: HankKwan (2786 in chips)
Seat 3: Pyroshouse (7089 in chips)
Seat 4: RaidenRadio (1939 in chips)
Seat 5: HeyMan07 (8380 in chips)
Seat 6: bogie78 (7131 in chips)
Seat 7: atx45 (3393 in chips)
Seat 8: papaguya (4432 in chips)
Seat 9: Mickyboy333 (5350 in chips)
HankKwan: posts the ante 50
Pyroshouse: posts the ante 50
RaidenRadio: posts the ante 50
HeyMan07: posts the ante 50
bogie78: posts the ante 50
atx45: posts the ante 50
papaguya: posts the ante 50
Mickyboy333: posts the ante 50
RaidenRadio: posts small blind 300
HeyMan07: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RaidenRadio [2d 2h]
bogie78: folds
atx45: folds
papaguya: raises 3782 to 4382 and is all-in
Mickyboy333: folds
HankKwan: folds
Pyroshouse: folds
RaidenRadio: calls 1589 and is all-in
HeyMan07: folds
Uncalled bet (2493) returned to papaguya
*** FLOP *** [Td Kd 4s] He had AT

So yeah. That's my day. I can't win any substantial pots, period. Big pocket pairs, sets, flips. Nothing. I wish I could just fill with every big hand I was dealt so you could see how utterly impossible it was to win for me today. But that would be too much.

Again I have to say, I didn't make this blog to bitch cause that's not what I'm about. But these first two blogs were written during what has been my toughest week in a long time. It's insanely frustrating to get your ass handed to you by people that you think are utter garbage time after time. To have to call an all-in during the first level for 2/3 your stack with Jacks because an awful opponent lost a big pot early and now he just wants to throw 40 bb's away on A6, and you have to stare at that Ace-high flop and think, "Fuck you, you don't deserve this. Why am I being punished because of your awfulness?" Then you sit there and fight back and get back to your original starting stack just in time for 75/150 level when you're in push/fold mode. But you continue to play better than everyone at the table until you get 2 limpers and you shove 99 and lose a flip to some guy with QT who limped and called off 2/3 of his stack only to trip and fall over a Q-T-5 flop and send you out in 5th.

Bottom line is I don't think I've ever seen TAG style play punished this severely in all my life. For my best hands to lose to the 60th best hand of anyone who wants to come along. Fuck today.

So as a result I dropped 8 BI's today. Gonna hit em hard tomorrow til I'm pulling my hair out.

Daily Total: -$41.50

Weekly Total: +$14.30

Needed for month's rent: $200-ish, don't feel like tallying

Days Til Rent Withdrawal: 11