I'm inferior? Who's inferior?

Sometimes, when there isn't much to laugh at, you have to take what you can get. As I was driving to the Strip yesterday, the first thing that really caught my eye was a lit-up billboard, flashing "Loan Applications Accepted!". I took this as a bad sign.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, thank you. I'll be here all week.

Actually, that sign did make me chuckle a little bit. It seemed as if the city of Las Vegas was trying to tell me something, in its typically not-so-subtle fashion. But I am not superstitious enough to put a lot of stock in such omens. I am superstitious enough to feel like I needed a change of venue, so instead of hitting the MGM last night, I went to Caesar's Palace. And before hitting the tables, I set a rule of stopping play at midnight, or 0100 at the very latest. Finally, I resolved to tighten up my play and bluff less frequently than the previous couple of days.

Sadly, a few hands into the night, I failed to play as tightly as a should have, calling bets with QT that I should have folded. Happily, I caught my kicker on the river for two pair and almost tripled up my $200 buy-in. So from THAT point on, I thanked Lady Luck for the windfall, and played squeaky clean about 95% of the time. I was fortunate enough to get another two pair a few hands later, and ended up with just over $700 in my stack. A short time after that, our table broke (due to lack of players) and we were all re-seated at different tables. However, before I took my new seat, I went to the cashier and turned in $500 in chips. This is normally something I would not do, since I like to have a big stack in case I have a monster hand against another big stack. But last night, I really wanted to lock in a win.

The rest of the evening was uneventful. I was up and down, and when midnight rolled around I cashed out my remaining chips and left with $433 in profit over 5 hours. That brings me to -$567 over 22 hours for -$25.77/hour. Assuming my exponential rate of improvement stays the same, I should be a millionaire in a few weeks. :) But I would settle for another couple of solid sessions.

Last night was the first night I got a semi-normal amount of sleep, and today I am feeling rather human. I'm looking forward to hitting the gym and the grocery store - anything other than just eating, sleeping and playing poker. Thanks to everyone who has sent the encouraging emails and advice - they have really made a big difference in my mood, and the advice has been sound. I really appreciate it.

Also, props to Chuy for correctly identifying the snippet from the Eagles' "Heartache Tonight" from yesterday's post title. Chuy, send me some contact info for your $1 prize.

HAND OF THE DAY:
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I've been debating about the HOTD, because I only clearly remember the two hands where I won the big pots early. Both were not really that interesting. One of them I played poorly; in the other, the other guy played poorly. I wouldn't mind talking about how poorly I played if it was interesting.

Ah, forget it. There was another hand that I wasn't involved in that I do want to talk about. It was like watching a train wreck. It involved a very tight, solid player and a dude with a cowboy hat who I'd pegged early on as being very inexperienced.

The table was 5-handed and Cowboy is on the button, Mr. Tight in the small blind. Cowboy limps in, Mr. Tight completes the blind, and the big blind checks. So far, so good.

Flop: K44
Mr. Tight checks, Big Blind bets $25.
Cowboy calls.
Mr. Tight raises to $60.
Big Blind folds, Cowboy calls.

Turn: 9
Mr. Tight bets $75, about half of Cowboy's remaining stack. Cowboy's face is clearly unhappy, yet he calls. He knows he's beat, I know he's beat, and the waitress could have walked by and said "Hey Cowboy, you're beat!" and it wouldn't have surprised me.

River: 8
In goes the rest of the money. Mr. Tight turns over K4 for a 444KK full house, and Cowboy turns over AA.

You often hear it said about AA that you can either win a small pot with it, or lose a big one. Case in point right here. The thing is, as I was watching this happen, it felt like watching a predator luring in its helpless prey - only the prey was aware that it was being lured in, and just couldn't bring itself to walk away. It was sad to watch, in a way, and disappointing as well because I was a little hungry myself and had my eye on that guy's chips. One could partially justify the calls on the flop and turn, for if Cowboy hits an A, he's got his own full house to beat Mr. Tight. But he had to believe with about 95% certainty that his opponent had a 4, so the call on the river cannot be excused. Lest I forget, his failure to raise at least a nominal amount pre-flop can also not be excused.

So the lesson here is, Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be Cowboys.

Play well, everyone!