Is It Over Yet? (a Quicky post)

What a month! I'm absolutely convinced that March is trying to drive me mad. I have spent most of March sick as a dog, under the influence of over-the-counter medicines, unlucky and completely card-dead. As such, I have not been able to do well at the tables, which has caused a notable dent to my bankroll.

After all, a person can do well at the tables even though he or she is sick, so long as they catch hands that hold up; or if a person is having a card-dead kind of day, a good poker player should always be able to fall back on his or her skills and table presence to balance out the lack of hands. However, to be foggy headed and sickly looking at a poker table while being totally unlucky and utterly devoid of hands to play is hardly a recipe for success. Any halfway decent card player will quickly catch on to the fact that it is not your day, and move in for the kill!!

Well, no sense in crying over spilt milk I guess. As the month draws to an end, I have begun picking up the pieces and am preparing myself for what I hope to be a much better second quarter. Of course, given that I believe that March 2009 will go down in recent memory as a very costly month for me, the irony that the dawn of my salvation falls on a date known as “April Fool’s Day,” is not lost on me in the least.

Getting Back in the Game

For several weeks now, I have been struggling with illnesses. During the Presidents' Day weekend, I struggled with a sinus infection that cost me my ability to think straight and play well. Then, last week (first week of March) I got hit with the flu. Since I had not fully recovered from the sinus infection, the flu was able to reek havoc on my body and I ended up with sever bronchitis. Of course, undeterred I rolled out of bed to give the most recent ladies' event at The Bike a try (Sunday, March 8, 2009).

Needless to say both the tourney and my play were very disappointing, although I was able to survive 3/4 of the field on the shortstack while being completely card dead. With only 102 entrants and a 130 buy-in, the purse was limp to say the least and I was feeling under-the-weather and totally hopped up on Sudafed and Caffeine. Looking back, I either should have got back in my car and gone home or I should have used my time and effort to play satellites towards the multi-rebuy event that was set for later that evening. But no, I decided that since I wasn't feeling well and since I planned to work on Monday it was best to play the ladies' event which was only expected to run 5-6 hours. However, I was wrong. Not only did I bust out after 5 hours and just 27 players left (by loosing two back-to-back pre-flop all-ins w/ JJ to KQ off), by the time I got home, I found myself sicker than ever.

While I normally don't care for on-line play (because the Bush laws have made it so difficult to deposit and withdraw money and the field has just become insanely flooded with both Fish and little geniuses), I've spent much of my sick-in-bed time over the last week playing on PokerStars...using $10 that Johan sent to me to play cheap little STT and MTT donkaments for entertainment. Of course at these micro limits one really isn't playing one's best, but I'm happy to report that I've continued to build upon the gifted dime and have a pretty decent bankroll, cashing in an average of 3 out of 5 games a day. I was able to return Johan's $10 and I even sent him about $30 more, just by playing micro stake games - winning small cashes here and there.

Now, here I am having a pretty tumultuous weekend, but getting ready to go to The Bike to work the satellites for tomorrow's NLH $500 buy-in tournament. I'm still not 100%...actually I don't know that I'm at 50% yet, but life hasn't stopped while I've been sick. So, for the third time I'm going to play while under the influence of OTC medications. On a high note, my confidence has returned as a result of my success on-line, so I'm hoping I will be able to convert this small time success into big-time winnings in live play. And I'm sure I'll find out soon enough whether or not playing on-line helps or hurts my game.

Wish me luck...