Tuesday, June 28, 2011

I Missed

First of all, I think I realized what happened yesterday. When the turn was happening the premature ten was still faceup next to the board. I think the guy had Q9 and thought we had been magically transported to the river, where he had the second nut straight. I swear to God I think that's what it was....

So anyway on to today and somebody open limps a woman raises a cold call I 3! AKhh in the SB, the BB does not fold and off we go 5 ways.

654r

Lol great. I bet anyway and only the limper folds.

8 completing the rainbow.

That's all that's it I'm done I quit. BB bets and the preflop raiser...calls. That's curious. The cold caller and I fold and we see the river

654-8-T

The BB fires and is snap called. Then it begins:

Him: "nice hand, I missed" while patting the table.

Her: Fastrolls A8o for second pair, the unquestionable nuts after the words "I missed" have been uttered.

Him: Tables T2hh

Me: "That word...."

Monday, June 27, 2011

Two Gems From LA's Friendliest

I had occasion to play some off shift hours at Commerce today, and the experience was...nostalgic. As "good" as the Bike 40 has been of late, it simply cannot compare to the reckless endangerment of financial instruments you see in...bum bum ba....the commerce 20. I played 40 for a bit but the game was meh and I pledged that I wouldn't play 60 because I really wasn't in the right frame of mind to torch $5K in two hours (that image is coming up a lot) so instead of moving up I moved down. And I mean...wow. They cold-call like it's their job. They call 3 bets with a pair draw and then check when they get there. They just are plain awful. To wit:

A man raises the pot up front and some other people do some things and I 3 bet out of the big blind because I have cornered the market on red aces (a valuable commodity no doubt in this economy). The flop comes:

J54dd

And I resist the urge to fist pump and instead simply bet. The man raises and for some reason every other player in the pot (and there were quite few) opts not to continue. We're heads-up now, and against a strong player I could consider just calling and putting in a check/raise on the turn. But oh no, my friends, not in the Commerce 20 against some random Asian fish-ball. I 3 bet, and he 4-bets swiftly and angrily. Through the din of set-up calls and chip shuffling and dealer beratement (is that even a word? it can't be....) the voice of MikeL comes through loud and clear.

"They just never have it. They'd always wait to raise the turn with a made hand. Don't stop"

I 5-bet. He 6-bets.

"Can't stop. Won't stop"

I 7-bet. He stops. As I'm congratulating myself for not only winning the pissing contest but also likely having the best hand, the dealer destroys my efforts:

J54dd-2d

Aiyah! I check and he bets instantly and smugly. I call, wondering what I'll do if I mi...

J54dd-2d-7d

LOL why would I worry about missing? I haven't lost a pot in a month (OK, other than the 6-rack torching at Commerce last week) why would I start now? I check, he bets, I raise, and he instantly calls. Then the banter begins:

Him: "I flop a set"
Me: "Oh really?"
Him: "You don't believe me"
Me: "I seven bet the flop. What do you think?"
Him: "......"

I shared the hand with Pete and he agreed that the man bet/calling the river with a set here on the four flush board (not really the calling part...more the betting) is just freaking absurd. He COULD MAYBE PERHAPS JUST POSSIBLY have actually flopped a set that turned into a small (5 high I think) one card flush. But really that's the only possible explanation. I'd lay 10:1 or more he turned a flush, and through the din again that voice comes back to me...."See, they just never have it. Good job"

So then we move on to a hand that could only be played at Commerce. I raise under the gun because I have kings (did I mention I never lose any more? It's fucking sweet you all should try it sometime) and like 7 people call and we see a flip of:

KJ4ccs

Of all black cards. I bet, two players call, some other hands find the muck, and the action is on the big blind and....

KJ4ccs-Ts

Wait. What? That's right the dealer has done his thing a little too early and now we're not really sure what to do. Like, sure the big blind was kind of hiding his cards and didn't call time or anything but I mean really, dealer, really. Your job is not that hard. No one had berated you for like 14 or 15 seconds, you were probably in very high spirits, why did you have to go and fuck up my hand? Now the floorman comes over, but before he gets there the big blind decides to muck his hand (curious indeed) and the floor makes the idiotic but "correct" (by the book) ruling that the "old" river is now going to be the "new turn". So the dealer burns and turns:

KJ4ccs-Jd

And I actually laugh out loud. That card is just so fantastic on every level. I virtually cannot lose the hand, and to boot I'm probably going to score bonus action. I bet, my 7-bet victim folds, and the other player obliges me with a raise. I three bet quickly, he calls, and the dealer....starts to shuffle the stub. I suddenly realize that's what he's supposed to do (the floorman hasn't said a word to him...he obviously makes this mistake quite often), because he's giving the premature turn card a chance to come back out on the river. Live players seem to like this resolution to the problem as it changes things "the least" and I guess it's sort of OK especially in this case where the guy who hadn't acted yet mucked, and to quote my mother it's certainly not the hill I want to die on so we continue. As he's laboriously shuffling (dealers can't even shuffle these days....seriously that box has made them so lazy) it occurs to me that the only appropriate outcome here is for the case jack to fall off the deck.....

KJ4ccs-Jd-Jh

I check and my opponent...checks?! Flabbergasted I roll my hand. He shakes and scratches his head, trying to figure out what just happened, then mucks complaining that the dealer messed up and he should have made...a straight. They try to explain to him that the turn jack would have come on the river, I would have filled up anyway. He wasn't having it. The man wanted to make a straight, and nothing they were going to convince him that he simply couldn't do it, at least not in this universe. He muttered to himself for 15 minutes, the eventually requested a setup while picking up his chips and wandering off towards the stud games.


Thursday, June 23, 2011

Shameless Bike Plug

We have some stuff going on at the bike and I figured I should tell the tens of dozens of people who read this blog. First of all, they are cranking the jackpot up to the full $100K for the entire month of July in the 40/80 game. No special hours, no quads beaten by quads without using kickers or whatever; standard aces full of tens beaten by quads 24/7 on the 40/80 table for the whole month. Also, we are looking to hire regular props and "special" props. If you're reading this you probably don't play bad enough to get hired into the "special" category, but if you know somehow who might please let me know. And this is all in addition to paying $7.50 per hour on the player's reward card and getting the privilege of watching MikeL rape me 2-3 times per hour. Really I don't understand why there isn't a line out the door.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Armor

Just a random short thought regarding a skill/tool you really need to have in order to play poker successfully; armor. Some people call it thick skin, but I think that's a little bit off. What you really need is actual armor, that can withstand a lot of punishment. As best I can tell the only way to get it is to actually take the punishment and survive, thereby increasing your armor's thickness by a small fraction. Or I suppose you could just be born with it. The $19K downswing I took towards the end of May and yesterday's 6 rack party have gone a long way towards strengthening my armor. In a sick way I feel almost proud to have gone through it, like a badge of honor or something. The Big Potato lamented to me recently that by moving down from 40 to 30 at HG his armor was actually weakening, since he wasn't having to come home stuck 3 or 4 thousand once a week. In a way obviously he was enjoying it, but in a sense he was aware that the short term luxury was bad for his long term goals.

The more I'm at this the more I'm learning that you need to build up resistance to these swings, because they only get worse as you get better and have smaller and smaller relative edges in larger and larger games. I said it recently on 2p2, but if losing $20K will make you quit poker forever, and that will always be the case, you can never safely move up to 40/80. It's just a 100% sure fire way for you to quit forever, eventually. I used to count wins and losses in hundreds; now I count them in thousands. I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but I felt like writing more and this seemed interesting enough.

Another point I made to Private Joker recently was that as a professional poker player, if you're going to lose $20K, it's much better to do it in a week than a year. The reasons are obvious, but if you think about it for just 3 seconds (and not 10) it seems preposterous. It's completely true though. Breaking even forever is really the way to run yourself out of this game; consistently putting yourself into profitable situations where you can win or lose (relatively) big is the way to stay in it and succeed. I wish someone had been able to explain that to me 3 years ago.

We Have a New Record

That's right, I set a personal "best" yesterday at Commerce. Specifically I outstripped the previous record for "Single Day Dollars Lost" by something like 30%, posting a red $6100. The things that had to happen to me in order for such an event to occur were so numerous and preposterous that I will save you most of the details, but I actually think I played super duper well for the entirety of my session and ended up quitting for two independent but important reasons (my bike shift started in 12 hours and I needed to get some sleep, and I was basically out of money). The game I was in was juiced up more than Barry Bonds in 2004, with most of the action flowing through a drunk guy who looked a lot like Chris Farley. In the course of the 6 hours we played he may have consumed 20 Michelob Ultras (normally I'd laugh at someone who weighs 300 pounds drinking ultra light beer, but he literally saved something like 3000 calories I think so good for him), and slowed the game down to a snail's pace. Every one of his "stacks" was filthy, with $5, $1 and even $3 (fucking commerce) chips making their way into the pot every time he chose to call a bet (which was probably 75% of the time he had a chance to do so). He raise/called the river A65-T-T with KQ high. He called a river bet (and a flop and turn bet mind you) with 52 on a KJ8-Q-2 board. And no, he didn't have a flush draw. He called river bets with queen high (in pots that had been capped 4 ways on the flop). And best of all, he always, always, always donked if he improved. Like if he started with no pair and flopped one? Donk. Turned a pair? Donked. Turned two pair? Donked. Donk donk donk donk donk. So of course I sat on his immediate left for 6 hours and lost $1000/hour (MikeL pointed out that the way to get the Bike 40 to actually challenge Commerce likely does NOT involve dumping thousands of dollars of our customers money back into the game...he has...a point). The most memorable hand, which is only because it happened last, was as follows:

Farley limps and I raise with AA. The small blind who's new to the game but has seemed weak tight so far calls two bets cold, the big blind somehow folds (in retrospect he must have not actually been at the table or having a stroke), and Farley back raises. In 6 hours this is the first time he has chosen to back raise, and I actually giggle like a school girl while capping. The sb calls and we see a flop:

T83dd

Farley donks. Great, he has a pair. It could be KK, or it could be a ten. He's had big pairs several times in the last 6 hours and never back raised them, so I'm thinking he may just have a hard on for me and have the JTs or whatever. I raise and the SB...3 bets. Obviously this is terrible as he does actually have eyes and most likely used them to watch me cap a back raiser who's supposed to have aces, and Farley just calls. I call only figuring I can raise a safe turn or reserve the right to pussy out if the turn is....

T83dd-Tr

The SB...checks. Nothing makes sense here really other than a screw play attempt, but I have no choice and must bet except Farley...donks. I tank and decide that a flush draw also makes no sense for the SB and that he's about to c/r with a full house and Farley honestly probably has me smoked anyway so I just call and the SB...calls.

T83dd-Tr-8r

SB checks, Farley bets, I snap call and the SB calls. Farley shows Queens, I roll aces, and the small blind gives us a look of just utter disdain before turning over the K8o for the two outter frag.

Think about what it took for me to lose this pot. First of all, Farley had to decide to back raise for the first time in 6 hours. If he'd raised and I 3 bet I probably could have pried the K8o out of the sb's hands. OK fine, that didn't work. Now I cap it and he's still in there and has to lose his fucking mind on the flop with second pair (which is literally never, ever, ever the best hand when Farley donks and I raise....never. Farley doesn't fold queen high, let alone pairs. Do you really think I have AK or like, sevens, there?). Now for good measure I decide not to cap the flop, giving me one last opportunity to knock him off his hand, and he gets the best turn in the deck besides a king or an 8 and decides to...check. But that turn is so scary and creates such a obvious wa/wb situation that I don't pull the trigger on a raise (which honestly I dunno maybe he calls anyway) and only then, after all this preposterous shit happens, only then does he spike his 2 outter and proceed to check/call with it.

In all though I am in rather high spirits. Up until Sunday I had been on the rush of a lifetime and it had to come crashing down eventually. Life is going well, I haven't gotten fired, and I am still playing a game for a living, which is the entire point anyway.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Can't Lay Down Kings, Can Ya?

I checked out a gym this morning on the way in. I loved the floor, location is great, price is right, but there was one problem...they don't have showers. IMR, no showers. How do you build a gym without showers? Disgruntled, I did not join and drove straight to the Bike and sat immediately in the 2/3 NL with my coffee.

As I'm sitting down I see a 3 way all in, TT v JJ v KQcc on a T94-J two club board. Lol wow, OK, that's quite a cooler. Next hand I ask to be dealt in like UTG + 2 for free and I get to folding for a bit with the pots going off like 5 ways almost no matter what. These people like to play pots, that much is clear. Then it happens.

7ish handed UTG limps, I make it $12 with black kings and immediately regret it; 3 players call behind me, the bb calls and we are 6 handed. In LHE I'd be counting the money. In this silly game I'm already trying to figure out how to avoid getting stacked. To the flip:

875cc

My limited understanding of the game rates this flop as borderline disasterous. Nonetheless after two checks I fire $35 (note how "small" I've kept the pot....I started the hand with $295) and the player on my immediate left insta-calls. One player folds and another snap calls. The rest fold and we are 3 ways with something like $170 in the middle. Let's pause and discuss the thoughts running through my feeble brain.

They have position. That is unpleasant.

Would they fast play draws? Probably.

Would they slow play sets? Probably.

Can they both have draws? Sure; that's the silver lining of a flop this wet.

Am I stacking off? Probably.

So we see a turn with smoke literally pouring out of my ears and it's...a beautiful deuce of spades, for a board of 875cc-2r. I tank for 15-20 seconds and then announce a bet of $100. This leaves me with like $140 behind or so, and was almost undoubtedly at least my second bet sizing mistake of the hand, but I couldn't check and well...whatever. My first opponent had me covered, the second was like $60 shorter than me and as I was trying to decide if I could fold if one of them shoved they both...snap called. I mean this took less than 5 seconds total and the dealer is burning and turning the river and I am completely unprepared for an extremely tough river decision but somewhere something in my brain says "they are now both polarized to big draws and sets" and then the board pairs the 5.

875cc-2r-5r

I decide to check and induce a bluff. I have no idea why I did this, other than the fact that betting seemed silly. So I checked. Opponent one checked and the second guy thought for maybe 2 seconds and declared "all in" and I said "call" before he had even broken his stack. A plan is a plan, amirite? The table laughs a bit and he says "well that's not good...could you at least let me get my chips out there before you call?" The dealer counts it down and it's $82 (into like $470) and now the other guy...tanks! He picks up his cards and looks at them in plain view, revealing T7cc for a crappy 2 pair and a busted flush draw. Surely he's going to fold....right? He says "what you have? 8s full?" and tanks some more. He must fold.

Nope. He calls. The bettor rolls A6cc for the mother of all draws. I show my kings and the caller officially tables the T7 (half the table could see it anyway) and the bettor mutters something about me calling with that. As he calls for chips he declares "Can't lay down kings, can you?"

Thursday, June 16, 2011

And We're Back

I have returned in one piece from my week long sojourn to Pennsyltucky. As an aside I only call it that because my AP American History teacher called it that, and if it's good enough for a man with a Ph.D who for some reason lives in Donora and teaches high school history, it's good enough for me. In short, I mean no disrespect, I'm just trying to be funny.

Today I was already back in action at the Bike, continuing to run hotter than the very sun itself. Inspection of my records shows that I have erased 18/19ths of my losing streak over the past 55 or so hours, and now have just basically broke even over literally like 100 hours. I'm pretty sure such a swing has to at least be uncommon, perhaps not in absolute magnitude but at least in "steepness" or whatever you'd call it for its shortness.

As for actually playing poker today I think I was pretty rusty. I missed some value in some spots that should have been pretty easy I think, and I'm worried that I'm starting to slip due to a lack of hands played. I'm going to try to get some time in on Merge just to work on that, and I'm going to join a gym tomorrow. Also my Vegas beard (which will be handled by an old fashioned barber with a straight razor over cigars and scotch) is coming along nicely.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Sounds Like California

[4:51:43 PM] Jesse Smithnosky: also my softball team has demoted me to first base

[4:53:08 PM] BigBadBabar: first base is important position right

[4:53:16 PM] BigBadBabar: better than left field

[4:53:21 PM] BigBadBabar: er no

[4:53:21 PM] BigBadBabar: right field

[4:53:22 PM] Jesse Smithnosky: in littel league

[4:53:24 PM] Jesse Smithnosky: that was true

[4:53:25 PM] BigBadBabar: left field is important

[4:53:27 PM] Jesse Smithnosky: in softball

[4:53:36 PM] Jesse Smithnosky: first and second are where you hide the retards

[4:53:44 PM] BigBadBabar: could be on the bench imo

[4:53:49 PM] Jesse Smithnosky: catcher is next step

[4:53:50 PM] Jesse Smithnosky: then bench

[4:53:52 PM] BigBadBabar: ah

[4:53:58 PM] Jesse Smithnosky: what happened was sorta complicated

[4:53:59 PM] BigBadBabar: well, get it together smithnosky

[4:54:04 PM] Jesse Smithnosky: but basically the shortstop actually got demoted

[4:54:08 PM] Jesse Smithnosky: cause "guy who plays low A ball professionally" should be at shortstop

[4:54:25 PM] BigBadBabar: ah

[4:54:28 PM] Jesse Smithnosky: so shortstop is moving to 2nd

[4:54:37 PM] Jesse Smithnosky: and old first baseman plays a mean 3rd also

[4:54:46 PM] Jesse Smithnosky: come to think of it basically we all just shifted to the left

[4:55:01 PM] BigBadBabar: sounds like california

Monday, June 6, 2011

White Chip Engineer

I had this text conversation with a friend last week and decided it was funny enough to share:

Him: On the positive side, I finally found the one line code change needed to fix the bug that has stumped me for 3 days. Confirm meh engineer.

Me: Confirm 6/12 engineer. I was like 20/40 break even reg engineer.

Him: Pretty sure my company is proof that conservation of sheen applies to software companies as well. There is google, and there is *****. ***** on lifetime heater, else busto 8 yrs ago.

Me: Confirm busto. Oracle DB has kept that 60K strong pack of 4/8 engineers afloat for 20 years.

Him: I think I forwarded you that link about Oracle maybe buying ***** last year. Stupidity synergy IMO.

Him: Stupidity synergy also explains the winners in Oaks 30 IMO.

Me: Basically the could just fire all of you and just sell the stock and torpedo your product. That was the basic peoplesoft and java plans I think.

Me: LOL I am lifetime winner in Oaks 30, sir.

Him: I cannot complain. I am $86/hr winner since 2007.

Him: Confirm lt heater.

Him: So my current job is to make the LEDs on a bunch of hard disks flash. Pretty sure this is my new all time career low.

Me: Last 3 texts do not compute sir.

Me: Get google job IMO.

Him: Too much political bs at big companies.

Me: Danielle makes goog sound like nirvana. She has zero tolerance for politics. Zero.

Me: Of course she's a white chip engineer.

All the Way to the Queen

So we're playing 40/80 restricted bet texas poker at the bicycle club, and the game is...terrible. I'm working a double shift because of my Pittsburgh trip later this week (thanks for helping me out BJ) which has had me in the casino on duty for just a shade under 10 hours at this point. The bossman is about to leave, which will reduce the game to a six max lineup of White Chip Eric, Joe Tall, MikeL, DosXX, myself and...Crazy Ivan. Normally I would not sit in such a lineup so late in the day, but a deal's a deal and I'm going to finish out all 5 hours of BJ's shift, and MikeL's constant berating of Eric is almost enough entertainment to justify hanging around in and of itself. Most of the banter is Mike just saying absurd things like "Yup, ace king, there it goes, right into the muck" and Eric not being able to accurately assess if he's being sarcastic or dead serious (in that regard I think he actually has a lot in common with Danielle), but still other things are just brazenly cruel, like "Big surprise, second pair isn't good when I cap the turn you fucking clown." Anyway, Crazy Ivan is rushin' (that's a pretty good joke there, eh? If you didn't get it try reading it one more time) and has run up his last $500 for the day into about $1500, which basically means we have to keep playing a little longer until he loses it. Crazy Ivan is an old Asian man who recently spent something like 4 days straight at the Bike, wondering aimlessly from game to game with various chips and usually sipping a Bud Light. In all honestly I'm extremely concerned for his physical well being, as I'm pretty sure doing what he's doing could actually cause me personally to suffer some sort of heart attack or stroke, and he has to be at least twice my age. But he's back for more and just re-sat in our game with the case five bennies the ATM will let him take out, one for each member of the preposterously talented team of props keeping a game alive personally for him. His most recent absurdity was to slow roll a customer (who promptly quit, leaving us with prop nation and Crazy Ivan) with a flush so heinously that Eric had time to to say "He's slow rolling you, Randy...." during the process. As an aside Eric has the nut seat on Ivan, and he's even left a seat open between the two of them, which is something you can get away with as a luny tunes lag who doesn't chop.

So anyway, I'm ashamed to say that I missed some of the action in this hand, but I think the flop checked through and on the turn the board reads:

k76-9 with a pair of flush draws

And the action goes MikeL checks, bossman bets, Crazy Ivan calls, and Mike calls. The river puts out a jack that completes one of the flushes (I believe the back door one actually) and MikeL just donks, as is his custom in such spots with all kinds of crap. Bossman dutifully folds, and then Crazy Ivan earns his nickname and announces "Raise!" and drunkenly fumbles 16 chips into the pot. Mike advances directly to the tank (does not pass go, does not collect two hundred dollars), saying "See, this one is harder", referring to some fold he made against Eric earlier, or perhaps his bet/3/fold against Joe Tall with AA on the turn, or perhaps his check/call down with AA on a 943cc-Ac board, and then continues muttering to himself. "I think I just lost to some silly straight...but I have a queen in my hand" at which point Eric says "You just have one pair and you're taking this long?" and eventually Mike...folds.

Mike: "You made a straight, right?"
Crazy Ivan: "Yup. All the way to the queen"

Crazy Ivan then proudly rolls the the queen of clubs and the...eight of clubs...for a busted queen high flush draw.

Mike: "That's not a straight!"
Joe Tall: "What a bluff!"
Mike: "Wait wait wait...you think he knew he didn't have a straight? No way. Sir, did you know you didn't have a straight"
Crazy Ivan: "I never know"
Mike: "Now that's GTO!"

Friday, June 3, 2011

I Need a Queen

So today was another good day. I've re-couped over half my losses from the swong in 4 short days, with today as the capper, with me getting picked up out of fantastic games left and right and still just flopping only sets. What happened at the end, however, had to be one of the funniest and cruelest things I've done to someone at a poker table in quite a while. Some fishy prop powerlimps and I raise the king and the jack of clubs in the small blind. The BB calls, the prop calls, and we see a flop:

AT6r

And I think there was a club out there. So I bet and am hoping to just take it down, but the BB raises and the prop folds and I take one off automatically getting 9:1 with my gut shot (and obviously large implied odds, or so I thought). The turn is a card that is not a picture and I check and prepare to go about folding because he pretty much always has an ace and even if he doesn't well it just doesn't matter I have to fold here getting 5:1. He bets and then the funny starts to happen. I go to muck my hand and actually start to pitch them forward but then realize something is wrong. The man has only bet 5 chips! I bring my wrist back and the conversation begins:

Me: "Is that it?"
Him: "Yup, all you can eat"
Me: "Oh, in that case I call"
Him: (Shows ace)
Me: "I know, I need a queen" (shows hand)

Of course it's obvious what happens here; I bang out the nuts on the river and the entire table is just kind of stunned. Like, it's very clear what happened. I was in the process of folding, but he ran out of chips and because he ran out of chips I called and the Gods smoted him and well it was just freaking hilarious.

For the mathematically interested, there are 44 chips in the pot and I'm being asked to call 5, so I'm basically getting 9:1. I need 10:1 if he shows me an ace, but there is some chance he only has a ten (this chance has gone up since I realized he could be kamikaze all inning it).

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Tables Have Turned, Etc, Etc

Yesterday I posted my first winning day in something like 8 shifts, and since it's the first of June I actually feel like my swing is behind me. Of course this is completely ridiculous, as the swing never really even existed in the first place, and if I'd won 8 days in a row and suddenly lost yesterday I wouldn't feel like I was definitely going to lose today, but since the feeling is working in my favor I'm going to just run with it.

I think I've learned a lot about my game in the past week or so, namely that I still have leaks to address (obviously) and that my decision making machinery still tends to break down when faced with difficult decisions (as an example in a BvB battle yesterday I bet the ten high (4th nut) one card flush when donk-checked to on the turn, and then promptly paid off a check/raise...this is terrible, as my opponent isn't going to give me two bets, or even one, with a lot of his range). I've also learned that I'm still most comfortable in loose full ring games, and that's something I need to address since my job is to start the 40 4-5 handed with (generally) a couple of luny toons level lags.

In all for May I posted "at the table" losses of about $7K. But I did get paid, and had such a great April that things are still looking just fine. I also played over 180 hours, which definitely counts as a strong performance for me (although obviously my online output dropped from five figures of hands to three). I've fallen behind in my two plus two posting, but that's exactly because of the push to get the big hour number. And I've decided for the next week or so (until my Pittsburgh trip) I'm going to log as much 20/40 overtime as possible, both to regain confidence and attempt to win some money without putting too much of my remaining liquid cash at risk. No matter how much you had, you probably don't have enough after a 20 rack downer :(