Then you run to the store for quick relief, from a bottle of kaopectate

I quit! I give up! Seriously, I have had enough.

I am not eating any more of that spaghetti sauce.

Remember my mini-pizzas from yesterday? Well, the spicy Italian sausages that I put into the sauce had been out for some time before I made it, and quite frankly they had a questionable sheen to them as I tossed them in the pan. I was counting on the two cornerstones of natural food preservation (high fat content and spiciness) to provide a safety buffer. Unfortunately, I think those things work better after the food's been cooked, not before. In the end, there was something slightly off about the taste of the meat, so for the last few days I have been steering around the larger chunks. But last night, as I was sitting in the Bellagio a short while after eating a mostly tomato sauce-and-cheese-topped muffin, my stomach felt slightly uneasy. So with much regret, the rest of it gets consigned to the dumpster.

Oh wait...Bryant and Cecile are driving out today, and they'll probably be hungry when they get here.

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Poker went well last night: +$432. As I told Amy on my way in, I think I have finally either become numb to the losses or adjusted to the fact that they've happened, and I have to play well regardless. Whatever the reason, I've felt much more at peace the last few times I've sat down at the table. In addition to that, I've been recognizing that frustrated, angry, and very tilty feeling in the early stages of its development, and quashing it down before it takes hold.

I've also been paying increasing attention to how a table evolves over the course of an evening, and trying to make immediate adjustments. It's easy to get kinda zoned out after playing hour after hour of poker, the majority of which consists of folding hand after hand. It's also amazing how quickly a table can change - a single individual can have huge impact. I am fairly certain that my presence at a table tends to deaden it in terms of action, because of my tight play and serious demeanor. In contrast to that, we have for example the gentleman from Texas who sat to my immediate left last night (I think his name was Chris but I'm not certain). EDIT - I played again with this gentleman - his name is Charlie. He was, especially early on, an aggressive and active player. He was friendly and talkative as well. In a short time span he had raised so many pots, and started getting so many callers, that it was not unusual for there to be $75-$100 in the middle pre-flop. Prior to his appearance, this was not the case. As this pattern was being established, I realized that limping in with drawing hands would not be wise, as I was likely to get raised out of the hand. So I basically resolved to wait for premium hands, limp in, get raised and have several callers, and then re-raise. I never hit a premium hand to try this with, but that was my strategy.

Overall, I played a very basic game. Early on, I was a little wild - I went all in again with flush and gutshot straight draw (the flush hit). And I raised 3 limpers to $30 with 77 in the big blind. You can imagine my surprise when I got two callers, but a $100 bet on the Q32 flop secured the pot for me. It will never cease to amaze me how people, who thought their hand was worth $5 when they initially bet it, suddenly decide it is worth $30 after a monster re-raise. Oh well. If those people didn't exist, I guess I wouldn't be here.

Lan Whu and Chuy split on the song/artist for yesterday. Chuy takes it, since anyone that could identify the actual song would certainly have known the band.

HAND OF THE DAY:
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You know, one of the reasons I like writing about mistakes I make is that it they are then raised in my consciousness. It helps to solidify the situation in your head, and of course I am motivated to not have to write about the same mistake again.

Yesterday's hand involved an AJ in my hand and an ugly all-spade flop, K89. I had no spades but only one guy behind me, so I took a shot at the pot, and he called.

The turn was an A, giving me at least a pair. So I bet $60, and again got called.

River: T. So the board is now AKT98 with three spades. With top pair, I again bet $60. But even as I was betting it, I didn't feel good about it. And immediately after I bet, I realized there was no hand that he could call me with that would not win. AK through A8 all had me beat, with the exception of AJ, which would tie. A possible flush and about 8 gazillion different straight possibilities were on the board. The only way my bet could win is if my opponent was on a spade flush draw and did not hit.

Needless to say, my opponent raised me $60, and I folded. A minimum-raise bet into that pot was not a bluff; it was an attempt to extract more money from me. But I never should have bet at the river in the first place. In my opinion, there are situations in which betting when your opponent call only call with a winner is appropriate. The less likely your opponent is to have the holding required to call, the more likely you are to win the pot (a basic example is a paired flop - your opponent is unlikely to either of the two remaining cards of the pair, making a bet difficult to call). But in the case described above, so many very typical hands an opponent could hold would beat me, so my $60 river bet was a wasted one.

All right, I've got to clean up around here and get ready for my guests. Play well, everyone.