AQ. The bee-yatch!!!!!!

Long time .... no write! (Thanks for the prompt Yabi!)

It's been busy, as bloody usual. Zac's been a proper little bastard of late. Playing up at school in class and in the playground, so I've been trying to deal with that first and foremost. It's nothing a murder wouldn't fix.

It's also springtime and the weddings are picking up too, so I've got to stay motivated and diligent there. Did one on Saturday .... unmitigated disaster. 50 peeps in a room built for 100+ so zero atmosphere. Two warring families. Only 20 of the 50 peeps wanted to dance at all .... equals hard work for the fucking DJ! By 11pm the bride was crying (literally) to me about how her guests were all fucked. I couldn't necessarily agree with her .... but she was 100% correct! Boring arseholes.

Wedding tip - The guests make your wedding. Invite peeps with a pulse.

Back to reality..... the reality of an impromptu 6 handed shuffle yesterday!!! It started with a txt from C-nut around midday. Fancy a shuffle? Sure! Deerhunter and I had already talked about catching up for a brew or 10, so I knew he'd be good to go. And Mooshie was off shift and available! Excellent! And Leebie, who we 'met' in a poker sense a month or so back. And one more, a noob, Johnno .... who was only with us for a couple of hours. Not an overly experienced player, but not usless either.

So we were staring at a very decent starting kitty. 6 x $25. Not to be sneezed at! Even moreso when there were a couple of rebuys. $10 will get half your stack again, and double rebuys are allowed.

Long story cut short. I ran okay early. Small pocket pairs which never amounted to anything. 3's, then 5's and 10's. Only won anything with the tens. Then pure card death set in, and I basically got blinded away with nothing to work with whatsoever. When shortstacked I ended up shoving pocket 9's into the Deerhunter's Queens. Shit happens. That's poker.

Rebuy for my original stack. Fuggit. There's $45 of mine in the kitty. Then C-nut busts out and does the same. Rebuys his original stack.

At this stage Mooshie was chipping up to a crazy level. Chips ooooooozing everywhere, as we like to say! Rivering everybody. Even me. Bastard! The Deerhunter was travelling pretty gooot and Leebie was playing as tight as a fishes arsehole, and getting zero cards to speak of.

Then I started running okay. In fact, pretty well for a while. I hit bottom set when Leebie had top pair decent kicker and called my shove. He had me covered but only barely. He rebought for half his original stack. Another $10 into the kitty. I had a couple of other decent hands. One in particular, I was in the BB with 9-10 off, and C-nut, to my right popped my $300 post flop bet to $600 on a 9 high board. I really didn't think he had me beat so I popped him again. He folded, and all but admitted he was stealing there. At least my cajones are still attatched! It wasn't an automatic reraise there with a 10 kicker!

Then (and this is the main reason behind todays post) I ran some BIG HANDS into MONSTERS. I'd chipped up to take over the lead and was feeling really solid with my game. Not spewing chips and picking my spots well. But it didn't last. I then had my mentally scarring experience(s) with AQ.

Now to the gory details.

C-nut was managing to whittle away his rebuy very, very quickly. Overly aggressive in the wrong spots more than anything. That's his game. Anyway, when quite short stacked, he shoves. I look down and find AQ sooooted. Chance to eliminate one of my toughest competitiors at the table, and I've got him easily covered. My chance of being ahead here have got to be pretty good with him pushing the action. I call.

Nice one Dillo. Run AQ into AK. C-nut doubles up. Faaaark!

Not even 5 minutes later, after I picked up a couple of small pots and C-nut had donated more chips to me, I managed to do EXACTLY THE SAME THING AGAIN. AQ soooted into AK!

E-X-A-C-T-L-Y!

Now I'm a savvy enough player to know that AQ is nothing more than an A high hand. I really have been working on my game sooooo hard for sooooo long now, and I cannot believe I didn't have the sense to pick a better spot here, at least ONCE. I mean, I'd love some feedback from any of you .... ALL OF YOU!

Was this just a case of bad timing / bad luck / bad poker? Even C-nut said I had to call them both because of stack sizes and the chance to eliminate a player. But I cannot believe that I sucked that bad, and it cost me any chance of the win. I know shit happens, but these two hand really, really ate at me afterwards .... and it still is today. Sickening shit.

The crowning glory was when I was getting short again, and I get the bee-yatch again ... AQ. I raise to 600 pre. The blinds are getting higher and higher and there's heaps of action. C-nut (bastard) calls.

Flop. A - J- rag.

C-nut bets, I raise, he jams.

I tank ....

What has me beat here? Quite a bit I suppose.

Pocket bullets, pocket hooks and bottom set. AJ. Paired A and the rag. AK.

But I'm getting to the point where it's death or glory. Knowing I could be behind, I call.

C-nut flips over ...... Ace fucking Jack. I should've known and IGH.

FARK!!!!!!!! SO FUCKING FRUSTRATING......

So all in all, a very fun but ultimately infuriating. I'm really puzzled. I generally back my ability to lay down good, even premium hands. But I didn't at the pointy end last night. Even my harsh self criticism tells me that all three calls were justified based on stack sizes, but I still come out of it thinking what if ...? To a degree, it's a case of that's poker, but it could be a leak as well.

FUCKED IF I KNOW!!!!!

Result. Deerhunter, the winner of something in the order of $200!
2nd and money back. Leebie.

Will post soon on my fantasy NBA Hoops draft and squad too. Roll on season 07-08!

P.S. Have I mentioned how I really fucking HATE AQ at the mo?!