Some people like to stay out late

Well, at least you'll know I'm being honest about my results. Glowing reports of success could be questioned, but there's no reason to suspect an ulterior motive for talking about how poorly I'm doing so far. But, first things first.

Nobody managed to come up with the song/artist from yesterday's post title. It was Marilyn Manson's "Use Your Fist, Not Your Mouth". Y'all obviously need to brush up on your goth metal/industrial. So I've included a pic to get you started. This particular image is of Mr. Manson, but it just as easily could have been one of me this morning, wishing for a winning session.

I was very motivated yesterday as I sat down to play at 1730. One of my main goals during this trip was to improve, or rather acquire, skills at picking up on physical tells that my opponents have. The physical tells I'm referring to are along the lines of a twitch of the mouth, a slouching of the shoulders, etc. - not obvious physical tells like when someone is obviously ready to fold pre-flop because their cards are in their hands and they're just sitting there waiting for the action to get to them. I've been trying to pick up on the more subtle tells for some time, but it's pretty difficult and frankly, it requires a great deal of concentration. I've never made a decision based off of a tell of this type.

However yesterday I made that a priority, and early on in the day I picked up on two that I felt confident about. There was one guy who was playing most hands, bluffing quite often, and showing his hands about 60% of the time whenever he won a pot. So I got to see a lot of his cards and noticed that his bluffs were almost always accompanied by looking at his opponents - sometimes an actual staredown, but in all cases more than when he had a hand. When he had a hand, he would look down quite a bit more. Also, there was a girl at the table who was a pretty good player. I watched her raise once pre-flop, then carefully studied her face as the flop came with all rags (low cards). Her expression subtly changed from one of expectation to one of slight disappointment. It was a very small change, but if you were paying attention it was clear, and I knew that she had big cards and would fold to any bet. A small bet from one of her opponents proved me correct. Anyway, I never got a chance to use either of these tells, but I intend to keep working on this aspect of my game. This probably seems like the latest of my lame and anti-climactic anecdotes, but I'm writing about it because it concerns my development as a player.

Speaking of pointless anecdotes, I have to share this. There's a radio station out here that plays "easy listening" songs. I had it on for whatever reason as I was driving in, and they ran a promo that concluded with one of their listeners saying "I love this station because I can have in on in the car with the kids". The song that started playing immediately after that statement? "Maneater", by Hall and Oates. Ha! I had to laugh at that.

As for the actually playing, things were up and down. I suffered through another couple of beats where I had all my money in with the best hand and got drawn out on. So I'd bought in for $200 three times, and 4 hours in, I was down $468. I then mounted something of a comeback and fought my way back to even, then up $81 on the night. This was at midnight. I kept on trying for another three hours but couldn't get over the hump, and at 0300 I swear I was reaching to pick up my chips and walk out +$35 on the night when Country Joe Bumpkin and his silly-drunk wife sat down with $100 each. Oh man, it was just what I was here for. Sadly, I never got a chance against them, and I'll be a monkey's uncle if I can tell you what happened, but I ended up losing every single chip I had on the table in an hour. It was spectacular, or at least, it would have been from a safe distance. I misplayed KK, called a large bet with two pair vs. a straight, and finally caught a river 9 for a gutshot straight...that happened to fill up another guy's 99 for a full house. There were probably some other bad plays in there as well that I don't remember. Gack. It was horrible. I can't defend my play as good; it wasn't. To top it all off, a guy that had lost a large pot (~$500) to me earlier started giving me a bunch of crap as I was leaving, telling me that I'd only been playing with money on loan from him. He also said I was the reason he sat down at the table (which doesn't make sense, as I'd been playing before he arrived, and we've never played against each other before). Still, the point was clear. And this guy had been a Class-A jerk all night to a bunch of different people. So I did the only thing I could do. I looked him in the eye and said "You know what? Fuck you, buddy" and went home.

All told, I'm now down $1000 over 17 hours, for an hourly rate of -$58.82. That's 20% of my $5000 bankroll gone in two days. However, you'll notice that my hourly rate has actually increased by a couple of dollars! C'mon, work with me here.

I played too long last night. I had a good reason to, but it was not a good move. I've done this once before at Hustler, and I now realize that being tired for me is the same thing as being on tilt from a huge bad beat. I don't make good decisions. So I'm going to have to add this to the list of things that I must absolutely avoid.

HAND OF THE DAY:
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It's only fitting that I describe a missed opportunity as my HOTD. So here goes:
Me in the big blind with QT offsuit.
Under the Gun (UTG) player bets out $10.
Button calls.
I call (my first mistake; QTo is not a calling hand in that position)
Flop: 953
I check, UTG bets $10.
Button calls.
I call. You might be asking why. Me too.
Turn: J
I check, UTG bets $20.
Button calls.
I now have an open-ended straight draw (9TJQ) so a K or 8 give me the nuts. I call
River: J

Now, I have Q high and I'm in first position. But the pot is $120 and the second J makes it unlikely that either of my opponents have one. The betting has also been weak to this point. So it's a prime opportunity to bluff. A $50 bet at the $120 pot is clearly a good investment, and I fail to make it. It's arguable I should have led out when the first J hit, which gave me my straight draw and could have also represented a J in my hand, setting me up for an EASY bluff the on the river J. Anyway, we all check it down and UTG wins with an Ace-high hand. There is no question in my mind that I should have won that pot.

Well, live, lose and learn. Play well, everyone.