I’m seriously kicking myself for being such a lazy cunt. Although I’ve only really had two poker sessions since my last blog entry, both would’ve definitely been worthy of a post. However, by letting the initial burst of emotion fade away, I’m afraid I’ve missed out on an brilliant piece of writing or two. However, I’ll still give it a try and will hopefully learn from this mistake.

As you can probably remember from my previous entry, I recently had a few fairly deep runs in some MTT-s. In relation to that, I was anxiously looking forward to the upcoming Sunday (31th May) to have another big night of tourneys.

Unlike pretty much ever before, I actually had a bit of a bankroll now and was determined to keep it that way. Thus, in order to play in any of the major tournaments, I needed to qualify through a satellite. I started out with the $1 Million Turbo Takedown, registered for some satellites and the awaited poker session had begun. For some reason, however, I wasn’t feeling any passion for the game and was completely unable to focus. It didn’t take me long to qualify for the Sunday Million but other than that, everything was heading in the wrong direction.

It was one of the days again – I had this blank stare in my eyes and just kept registering for pretty much anything that was coming up on PokerStars, playing like a complete moron. Long story short, after several hours of play, I was down roughly $1500, having spewed off my chips at the Sunday Million, Sunday 500, some $109s and $55s … well, you get the point.

I had just registered for a $109 2R1A and made a double-rebuy when something suddenly struck me – “WHAT AM I DOING!?!”. It felt as if I’d just waken up from a trance. There I was with a bunch of my bankroll already flushed down the toilet and this random tournament that I’d just spent $309 on in front of me. I checked my PokerStars account balance and thought to myself: “fuck my life“. I stood up, went outside, took a nice deep breath and figured it’s about time to go and play some serious poker.

Several hours later I was sitting in the final table with a decent chiplead, as calm and confident as I could possibly be. However, that’s not always enough to win a poker tournament. I managed to maintain my lead throughout most of the finaltable until when in a span of 8-9 hands I lost JJ vs Q9s, ATs vs KQo and QQ vs AJo in pre-flop all-in pots and finished 3rd, scooping about 8,500 USD. A bit disappointing at first but pretty standard really.

Since then, I’ve played a few fairly small tournaments, made some terrible moves in bubble situations and missed out on some semi-decent scores. Oh, and just the other day I felt generous (read: needed to let some steam out) and spent about $400 on a $3+R tournament on PokerStars – preflop shove with any two cards, Double Auto-Rebuy during the 90-minute period and didn’t miss one single hand. Ahh, the suckouts I made on some poor microstakes grinders and the ‘love’ I was given in the chatbox made every cent worth it.

* BING BLANG BLAOW

]]> http://www.johnnyjazzblog.com/bing-blang-blaow/feed/ 0 http://www.johnnyjazzblog.com/rock-bottom/ http://www.johnnyjazzblog.com/rock-bottom/#comments Thu, 21 May 2009 18:53:38 +0000 admin http://www.johnnyjazzblog.com/?p=9

It seemed so familiar, the feeling. Yes – I’d definitely been there before. And the worst thing is, every time this has happened, a part of me feels kind of relieved – in a “mission accomplished” way. I think I’ve got a bit of a problem.

After desperately trying to run up my last couple of hundred dollars and donating it all to a lucky regular at a HU PLO400 table within a minute and 16 seconds (oh and before you even start – the last time I busted my roll, I already learned that you get dealt four cards and all that.. so I clearly knew what I was doing!!1), I calmly placed the laptop on my side and stared at the wall with a blank look on my face.

How many times have I been in this exact situation? No one could tell. Oh, the memories that started running through my head. It felt like one of the many good old degenerate days in 2007/2008 back home in Estonia. For example, how could I forget the day when I was just sitting in my apartment in the Old Town (which I was renting because I was 18 years old, “baller” and generally frickin’ awesome) on a Saturday afternoon, counting the empty beer bottles from the previous night (93), trying to remember if the chick I’d just sent away had been any good in bed and most importantly thinking: “brilliant – it’s the time of the month again.. so where the hell am I going to find the rent money this time”.

A few hundred EEK (Estonian currency – around 20 USD) in my pocket, I was still sitting there on my couch. I’ve got this weird thing with American Idol and other similar shows involving music. I just love them to the point where you could call it obsessive and secretly wish I was on there. So I opened one of my favourite episodes of AI but nothing. Still hung-over and still at least 600-700 USD short of rent. Next, I tried my luck with some porn. Nope – nice try, though.

“Maybe I’ve got a few FPPs on PokerStars that I can run up”, I thought. “YES!!!!”, I yelled about 11 seconds later while jumping up from my couch. You’re right, my dear readers – I had a whopping $2.66 on my account. All I had to do next was steal a few blinds at a NL5 table, buy into the $3+R MTT, drink 7 cups of coffee and there I was the next morning – dead tired but about 1700 USD richer. Time to go to bed.

“What?” I mumbled, picking up the phone while still half asleep

“Where are you?” my best friend asked

F*CK!!! It was Sunday and it was on. I had already missed the first couple of minutes. Now, let me get this straight. I was damn baller, I was the real deal. So it’s obviously not that I couldn’t afford a TV or anything. I just didn’t need one. TVs are for fags. Yeah, that’s what it is!! Right..?

Anyway, I quickly threw on a pair of shorts and my coat, jumped into my boots (yes, it was winter and it was snowing.. but it was an emergency and who needs a shirt anyway!) and 4 minutes later I was there, sitting on the couch at my best friend’s place and watching “Kaks takti ette” (an Estonian singing competition) with a smile on my face. Life was treating me well. However, there was no way I could resist installing PokerStars on his laptop. Just in case there’s some fish sitting in a table or a huge overlay on a tourney – “the usual”, you know. And what a brilliant coincidence: just when I figured I’d been officially crowned as the king of MTTs and that I was way over-rolled for pretty much anything really, Sunday Million was coming up shortly!

5 Red Bulls, few hours of Sunday Million, another 3-4 hours of $230 Turbo HU SNGs and I sadly had to admit – I wasn’t quite over-rolled for these games after all. I only wished I’d left a few dollars for the $3+R…

I still had a few notes of cash in my pocket, so I threw on my coat again in addition to the awkward enough combo of  shorts and a button-up shirt I borrowed, drove to this little 24h pizza place and bought…

…

…

…

A pack of Marlboro Lights – and I don’t even smoke! As a matter of fact, I sincerely hate smoking and I always have.

I drove back to my friend’s place, smoked 1/3 of the pack of cigarettes in a turbo-mode, feeling horribly sick. After that, I lay down on the couch and fell asleep. Somehow, it all just felt right.