Runner-Runner-Rebuy

I lost 40% of my bankroll a few days ago. It was the sickest series of consecutive beats I've ever taken, and I'm not sure if I should have given myself a stop-loss point or not.

It all started on Thursday afternoon. I was on my lunch break and fired up FT for a quick 55+5 Turbo SNG. It wouldn't let me register, claiming registration was closed even though it as only showing 2 of 9 registered. So, I gave up and had a sandwich instead. I got curious after the sandwich and fired up FT again to only to find myself immediately sat at the SNG I couldn't register for. I missed some hands and some blinds, but the most disturbing thing was that none of my buttons were working.

I quickly realized most of the table was having this problem, and it became a game of "whoever's buttons are working would steal the blinds." Most of the table was furious, as intermittent button response digressed into ridonkulous steals and resteals. I did manage to get my self up to T1800 or so with resteals when my buttons were working and the original raiser timing out. At this point most of the table was furious, and hoping FT would cancel or at least pause all hands until the issue was resolved. We all agreed this is what should be done. Even me, as the current chip leader.

Nothing happened, and being a Turbo, the blinds were going up and things were getting worse. The FT forum said they were having some issues, and a bunch of us at the table fired off emails to FT asking for an explanation and a refund. I ended up going out early, in 7th or 8th I think, but didn't really worry about it, I figured FT would refund us anyway.

I got an email from FT today saying they are still working on the issue. I've always found FT to be very fair about these types of things, so I'm guessing I'll be satisfied in the end, but at the time I was pretty ticked.

Queue Thursday night.

With the Blogger Big Cash Game coming up, I figured I'd better get some practice at the online cash games. Not only for practice, but hopefully to make a buy-in or so. My roll doesn't usually allow me to play 4-8 deepstack NL games but I was going to make an exception for the blogger game basically for fun, and risk about 10% of my roll doing so. I normally go up to 2-4NL and thats about it. So, I fire up Stars and FT, and multi table 2-4NL at the juiciest tables I have ever seen. At each table, there were at least three calling stations and I targeted them, playing only premium hands.

Over 4 hours, I lost 10 buy-ins. Thats 4K. I know that not a ton to many of you out there with monster rolls, but thats the most I have ever lost in one sitting, including the WSOP. It sickened me. If I flopped a set of Queens, they call down pot sized bets with 9c5c, to make runner runner 9 high flushes. I turn a boat, they river quads. Top two? Runner-runner straight. Ace high flush? Runner Runner Straight flush. I have NEVER seen so many runner runner winners EVER.

And I kept rebuying. I just now realize the appropriateness of the post considering my blog's name. The play was soooo bad, I just had to keep rebuying. Or did I? Should I have given myself a stop loss point? Maybe 10% of my roll? Did I keep pressing because of the bad play or was I just trying to get even, or worse, trying to win enough for the Blogger Cash game to not really worry about it? I don't know. The game seemed so good. When all the tables finally broke, I was left wondering WTF just happened. I still wonder.

Maybe I've been lucky, maybe I just got 6 months worth of variance all at once, maybe I don't know when to quit. One things for sure, I busted out of the Blogger Cash Game without even having sat at the table.

Over the past 5 days I have not won a SINGLE coin flip, I have lost every 60-40, 70-30, and 90-10 (ahead in 99% of those).

AA cracked by QQ 5 times
AA cracked by AK twice
JJ cracked by 9c5c

Ahh fuck it, I'm not even going to continue the list, it will just piss me off more. Its to god damn recockculous. Play the MATH tonight and take my money.

I'm cashing out of FT and Stars, only leaving enough in FT for a few months of blogger buy ins, and enough in Bodog for the Tuesday Blogger overlays. I've had enough of this shit.

BTW - no word yet from FT on refunding me for their server screw-ups on Thursday. Fuckers. Fuck. Fuck. Fuckers.

Eh-Vegas didn't turn out exactly how I expected. I was on the fence for a while. The NY Rangers were coming to town to play my beloved Buffalo Sabres for the first time in Buffalo since the traitor ex-captain Chris Drury elected to go to NY in the off season last summer. It was one of the games I was really looking forward to all year. I really wanted to be there to boo Drury.

But, after bailing out on Eh-Vegas last year, I decided to go, so I gave my Sabres tix away to a friend. Dinner by Astin seemed to much to pass up. I live only a few miles from the border and have crossed to border hundreds of times and have never had a problem before. Nine out of ten times my answer to "Where are you going" is "casino." And they let you right through. 1 out of 10 its Toronto for an international flight.

I pulled up to the customs booth on the Lewiston Bridge. A chick with an obvious attitude looks me up and down. I take off my baseball cap to look less menacing and smile. I hand her my ID.

"Citizenship?"

"US," I respond.

"Where do you live?"

"Buffalo, Amherst actually."

"Why are you coming into Canada?"

"I'm having dinner with some friends in Toronto."

"Where in Toronto?"

"Ummm....hold on, let me check the address......" I fumble though my papers to find the Astin's address and give it to her.

"Who lives at this address?"

"Ummm....Astin.....actually, I mean.....his real name is Chris."

"His real name?"

"Well, I'm meeting some people I know from the internet. And people use, you know, handles online"

"Whats a handle?"

"Like an alias."

"Ok, do you know this Chris's last name?"

"Ummmm....." Looking back to my papers I can't read my own handwriting. ".....Derps...or Pens.....or something....."

"Do you know anyones full name that will be at this 'Dinner'?"

"Ummmm......Al...no......Riggs......no......Kat.....no......Joanne......wait...wait.....Lucetek. Yeah, Joanne Lucetek." Thank god for Cardsquad (RIP). "I think she is from Vancouver or something.....but she is definitely a Canadian."

"Are you carrying any firearms in the vehicle?"

Ahhh crap...."No."

"How much money are you bringing into Canada?"

"Ummmm......I have about $1500 US"

"You need $1500 for a dinner at someones house?"

"Well, I thought we might go out afterward....?"

"Please pull up and to you left and a customs agent will be with you shortly."

And I swear to God, as I was pulling away from the booth, she yelled "BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!"

They tore apart my jeep, removed the hard top, and did everything short of a full body cavity search. They of course found nothing, but left me to put the truck back together. And let me tell you, putting on a jeep hard top by yourself is not easy.

Three hours later after pulling up to customs, having missed dinner, and probably going to miss the tourney, I turned around and went home, missing both Eh-Vegas AND the Sabres game.

Sunday, I managed to get over the border with ease to meet the bloggers at Casino Niagara in the Falls.

"Where you going?"

"Casino."

"How long?"

"A few hours."

"Good luck, go ahead."

"Thanks."

I met up with Al, Riggs, Kat, Jo, CK, IG, and Austin. IG left just as I got there, so I didn't get to talk to her much at all. But the rest of us shot the shit for a while, had some drinks while we waited on the list for seats at the poker tables.

CK was really nice for an ex-lawyer, and she knows how to handle a foot-long. My disparaging comments about lawyers from previous posts have resulted in her quitting her firm to find a more fulfilling career. May I suggest Actuary? All the thinking and logic of lawyering, without having to be a scumbag. Actually, now that I think about what actuary's really do, I think they are scumbags too. How about travel agent? Yeah, you would make a kick ass travel agent. Except don't try to push the damn cancellation insurance on me. I don't want it. I know it doesn't cost much, but I don't want the fucking cancellation insurance. Jesus Fucking Christ, I hate travel agents.

Al was Al, the man...the machine. What you see is what you get, and with Al, what you see is a cool fuckin' dude. He told me about the BBT3 prizes, and damn - I won't steal his thunder, you'll have to wait for his announcement - but we are gettin' hooked up.

Jo was great, she was one of the first bloggers I ever met and somehow helped me learn to manage tilt. She's been away for a while, but assures me there will be posts coming. Get the ball rollin' Jo, I know you have a lot to say, but how about just getting that first post back out of the way with a little "Hey, I'm back bitches." I think a quick small post like that open the floodgates.

Riggs. What can I say. I really like this guy. No, not in a ghey way - besides, Riggs would only ever huggle Bayne. The guy instantly makes you feel like a good friend. Some people just have that quality, and I often wish I could be more like that. I'm sitting here trying to think of what else to say about Riggs, but I'm drawing a blank - but in a kind of way like if you were trying to write something about hanging out with someone you see everyday. We shot the shit, talked about a bunch of random things, and in the end, you walk away thinking - "I don't exactly know why, but I want to hang with that dude again."

Astin was not what I expected. I pictured him a lot bigger and at least 10 years older. Instead, he looked like a skinny Canadian emo kid. Maybe because of the way he plays online, I always thought of him in a more monstrous way. Perhaps there is a monster beneath the surface, because he exudes an air of shadowy mysteriousness, which I'm sure the chicks dig. Canadian emo chicks love that shit. His IPod most likely has a mix of Sloan, Sunny Day Real Estate, and Spirit of the West. I could never get a read on Astin and I think he likes it that way, but I was very glad to meet him and hope to see him again.

And finally Kat. Though I missed the dinner and tourney, I want to thank her for organizing Eh-Customs, she did a great job, and I'm really glad I got to hook up with everyone on Sunday. What else can be said about Kat that already hasn't been said elsewhere. Super nice chick, I was glad to see her again. Thanks for setting up the weekend, and I swear I will make it to the tourney next year.

Here's an interesting thing Waffles saw on I, Shane.

Comment on this entry, and I will:

1. Tell you why I am friends with you.
2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, a word etc.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I’ve always wanted to know about you.
6. In return, you must post this to your own journal/blog.

Kajagugu
1. Because I thought you were a chick.
2. I associate you with Hari Krishna because your name sounds like some weird hippie guru thing. (Perhaps we should travel to India together).
3. You seem like a pretty hard worker who cares a lot about his family.
4. Railing each other while getting deep in some MTT's together
5. People don't complain when you DON'T smoke around them, so why are you always complaining when people DO smoke around you?

Joanada
1. Your one of the first bloggers I met in person, and I like talking poker strategy with you.
2. I associate you with the word Flame, because you are from Calgary.
3. I like that you are untiltable and are good at helping remove others' tilt as well.
4. Your bathroom adventures at the IP, and your "Sleep Won't Come" post.
5. I'm glad your back, but where did you go?