Road to Event 26, Day 5 (with a slight detour to Day 4)

Sometimes I just cannot help myself. Last night, I am up late doing a little laundry with not much else to do. Monday Night Football is on, but I could care less. My fantasy football action was done by the end of the afternoon games on Sunday (which I won --> I have at least $218 coming to me from this year's competition thanks to at least clinching 2nd, and also winning half of this year's transaction pool for scoring the most points during the regular season. If I win next week, tack on another $150 for a $368 score).

So I could not help myself - I jumped in and played some $3/$6 Razz. Mistake. I played for just a little while, and slowly ground my $60 buy-in down in half. I retreated - it was one of those feelings you have. So technically, I ended yesterday down. But since I had concluded my play for yesterday, I decided that I would have to just work harder on Day 5, and count this loss towards Day 5.

This is why you don't go off the plan. I felt I needed to push the edges harder than I normally would when I got online this morning. I headed right back to the $3/$6 game. I have beat this game consistently in the past, so I had no worries about playing again. The very first hand I hit an 8-5, only to be rivered by someone who ended up with a 7-6. $30 down the very first hand. I made a slight comeback, then I became a mason. I start off 4 to a 6, with people showing face cards, including a guy who was showing 2 jacks, who called me down the whole way when I proceed to go Q-K-Q on 5th through 7th. Actually, I think I checked the river, as I knew he was calling no matter what (and he would have, as made a 9 on the river). Just gross. A few hands later, I get busted out of the game When I started A-5-6, only to have someone else start A-2-5 and A-4-5. I brick all over the place, and the other two guys both hit decent hands, breaking me. Down another $60. This is not looking good at all.

So what better way to end a slump than by playing Omaha 8OB, right? Well, those who read my last post know I blew through $40 yesterday playing this very game. But I figured I was in the twilight zone, and if I was having this much trouble with Razz today then I should have good luck with O8OB. So I sat down at a $2/$4 6-handed table for what I hoped would be a long, grinding session where I could at least get my $60 back (or most of it) and start fresh later today on my journey. And at first, that was sort of true. I had some good luck with high hands holding up with no low draws out there, and I got up to double my $40 quickly. Then I started getting some of the classics. I have a nut lo, and the other idiot with the same nut lo keeps re-raising the high hand to get the pot capped on the river. With all of the other money in the pot, it was just good enough to call these guys so that I would not be any worse off than I would be by folding. What a moron. This same guy was re-raising the high hand heads-up with a nut lo earlier. The high hand was a mornin too and kept re-raising the lo. The winner here: Full Tilt Poker, who got extra rake from the additional bets thrown out there when it was obvious they each had half the pot only. Back to my game - I ended up back down to about $60, which was disheartening. But then I went on a roll. I scooped about 4 pots in a 15 minutes stretch, and before I knew it, I was up over $100. I had reached my goal. I recouped the debacle of a buy-in I had earlier in the Razz game. I wanted to end this now, but something told me to stay. This table was soft. So I did. And I ended up scooping another big pot, putting me over the $130 mark. By this time, I felt I had really done about all I could do at this table. If they had not caught onto me by now, they surely were about to. And I did the best I could at the time - got my money back from BOTH losing Razz sessions. I am officially back to even for my Day 5.

So I then head to the $3/$6 Razz tables one more time. I have a much better session this time. I do have a quick up-then-down cycle over the first 6 hands I play, and I develop a foil relationship with another player. I knew we would be locking horns. We get involved with a hand where we both have good boards, and we swap taking the lead on 5th and 6th street, but finally on the river I boardlock him with a nut 7, and he has two 8's and a 7 showing. Worst case scenario, we are chopping, and I am willing to bet the moon we are not chopping. This guy would have called me down with an 8-7 the way he had been playing me the entire session, but I also think he probably would have checked the river as well. I bet, he calls, and I end up $32 after the hand is over. After the craziness I have had today, hitting my goal directly on the mark is perfect!!!!! So I get up, leave the table, and go from $90 down to $32 up in a matter of an hour and a half. Sweet. Here is my progress as of now:

Daily Profit: +$32.00
Daily WSOP Profit: +$11.50
Daily Personal Profit: +$11.50
Daily Token Sat Profit: +$9.00
WSOP Goal at this point: $57.50
WSOP Money earned to this point: $76.00
Relative to Goal at this point: +$18.50

Steak