Recapping the wild ride

This was probably one of the strangest, wildest, most stressful trips I've ever done.

Considering all the long or extended or crazy trips I've taken in the past, that's saying something.

DAY 1

Arrived late Thursday and, after dinner with the family and checking into the room with the very nice river view, I finally arrived in the poker room around 10:00. I signed up for the $65 satellite and took my seat. It's pretty fast paced, as the starting stack is only 800 chips. I did pretty well, up to a point, where I made an absolutely horrid call with K-Q (having hit top pair on the flop) into someone's turned set to decimate my stack. I stuck around for a while but fell out in third when I had to push as an ultra-shorty with j-9 against 4-2 - and of course, the 4 came on the turn to send me away in 3rd.

At least it was better than last year's satellite showing.

Afterwards, I did the same thing as last year - head to my fun little 3-6 table, bought in for 20 BB, and saw it had gotten fairly wild.

Here's one example:

I am in the BB. Seat next to me puts in a straddle. It's raised around the table (I get out of the way) and capped, pre-flop, with five players in for $15 ALREADY.

Eventually, it's a three-way showdown for an $200+ pot. The guy who put out the straddle shows his pocket kings. Another player mucks. The third shows the hand he called and raised all the way through..........

Jack-Eight.

With a Ten on the flop, Nine on the Turn, and a Seven on the River.

Knowing I was surrounded by that sort of donkery suddenly relaxed me quite a bit. Straddle guy wasn't too happy, and left immediately in disgust.

I stuck at the table for about two hours, and finished up 18 BB's. Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiice way to start. The table was getting a little small and a lot tighter, and I decided I'd move from 3-6 LHE to 1-2 NLHE and see how well I could do there.

Max buy in was 200 but I bought in for half, as I do a lot online. ON THE VERY FIRST HAND, I look down to see two black aces. Uh oh. I really, really don't want to be a push-monkey on the first hand, but I don't want to get sucked out by slow-playing aces, either.

One other player bumps it to $22. It's folded around, and I think he'll call if I push, even on the first hand, preflop. So, I take a deep breath and shove them all in. I get the call I want, and he flips up A-K (no pocket pair!) The aces hold up, and I get a quick double up.

I stayed in for another hour or so, and head upstairs around 3:30 up 1.5 buy-ins from 1-2, and up 200 for Day 1. Not too shabby.

DAY 2

Here's where bad things started happening.

I entered another $65 satellite that morning, to try one last time to enter the $550 event at noon. I only lasted to 7th when my shorty push with K-rag ran into pocket queens.

Lunch was awful, as Alex decided to take the non-listening to another level by climbing on and through the fences on the RiverWalk balcony. After ignoring our first few requests to get off to avoid falling down to the walk below or into the river, it finally got to the point of having to take him, end lunch, and carry him all the way back to the room for an immediate nap.

It's not fun lugging a 40-lb child a half-mile through a mall back to a hotel. He did go down for the nap, though, so he would be somewhat refreshed to go to his cousins' house.

After seeing everyone else off for the party, I dialed in to check my work voice-mail and see if I had any good news regarding the position I interviewed for on Monday.

Turns out, I got a message from the recruiter.

Turns out, I wasn't getting the position. No real reasons given in the voice-mail.

At this point, I should have cancelled the rest of the plans I had and done absolutely NOTHING, thanks to an EV in the gutter. I was still up about 130 at this point.

Nope.

I donked off about 40 that afternoon in various settings, mostly poker and slots. I also tried going for a very long walk through the Quarter. It didn't help much.

After dinner at the Gumbo Shop, I attempted to go back to the 1-2 NLHE table since the room had cleared out from being so crowded from the circuit event earlier.

A new table opened up, and ten of us were seated. I bought in for a full buy-in this time, with it being brand new and all. I started moving up slowly, and was up about a quarter of a buy-in when it became obvious it was time to pack up (because the tilt hadn't completely f-ed e up yet).

Hand #1: I've got pocket 9's which had already been nice to me earlier in the session and the night before. I mis-played it and it cost me about 1/3 of my total stack. I just could not get a read on the guy, and misplayed my card to the point where it was obvious I'd missed the flop (which had an Ace and King on it). Just awful play by me.

Hand #2: Not as much my fault. I get A-Q in middle position, and raise it up, getting one caller. The board pairs my Ace on the flop, and I fire, getting a call. The turn puts a flush draw out there. I fire again, getting another call. The river makes a possible flush if he has the cards. I check it - and so does he. He got runner-runner to make his flush after calling the flop raise with nothing.

As it's time for another dealer change and table rake, I rack up and leave down another 70. At this point, I am up a total of approximately $20.

DAY 3

None. That's right, I quit. I decided I was facing too much negative tilt and that it was best to avoid the tables. We went to the aquarium, and Reginelli's for dinner. We drove by Tipitina's, around 7:30, and the line was already around the block. Heard the Fats Domino show went great - it was his first back in New Orleans. We got back to the hotel and took Alex on the streetcar up and down the riverwalk.

DAY 4

Leave New Orleans around 1, after taking everyone on the ferry to Algiers. Arrive home at 11 Central Time - Midnight eastern. 10 hours taken for a normally 7.5 hour trip.

Thank God I had today off. Even with the day off I don't think I've drained off all of the tilt.

Maybe this weekend will help. I don't think, though, that I will be taking on any long trips in the near future. Maybe when the kids are a bit older, but not anytime soon.

Picture post to follow later this week.