Donkey of the Week

For this week's "Donkey of the Week"...

I nominate...

ME!

Let me explain. No, there is no time. Let me sum up.

I finally lost a HORSE heads-up SNG last night. I played hold'em poorly, clawed my way back into the match during Omaha 8/b and I even took the lead when I dominated my opponent at Razz. Unfortunately, I lost a huge pot while playing 7-stud when I had three kings against a flush. After that, I was short-chipped and I went card-dead. 'nuff said.

For whatever reason, losing this HORSE SNG put me on tilt. Super tilt. Ultra-donkey-tilt-o-rama tilt. At one point, I was playing two tables of $5/$10 limit and one table of $10/$20. I lost buy-ins at one of the $5/$10 games and the $10/$20 game. Middle pair? That's good for a raise on the turn, right? Doh!

Before I knew it, I was stuck more than $1000 (please don't tell my wife!), which was enough to sober me up a bit and at least convince me to play at least a little bit better. I started to catch a few cards, which helped, and I eventually quit the limit games stuck about $700. I realized at this point that I was burned out on limit poker and I should considering playing some no limit.

Intelligently, I decided to buy-in to two $600 NL games. Yep, I was still on tilt somewhat... but merely the more typical, garden-variety tilt.

I played reasonably well for a couple of orbits when the following hand came up. In hindsight, I don't think that I played the hand too bad (if I had a huge bankroll). I was aggressive and I forced my opponent to make what should have been a somewhat difficult call (which took him 0.5 seconds to make). That said, I got lucky as hell to back-door a wheel and to take down the pot, which incindentally is by far the largest pot that I have ever won. (note: it's primarily because of this hand that I have nominated myself as donkey of the week).

$600 NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, August 23, 23:59:38 ET 2006
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: xxYogi0008xx ( $600 )
Seat 2: DrMuffin ( $984.90 )
Seat 3: NoMeansYes_ ( $600 )
Seat 5: mowine ( $258.40 )
Seat 6: S4tolly ( $880 )
Seat 4: frazwood ( $366 )
S4tolly posts small blind [$3].
xxYogi0008xx posts big blind [$6].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to frazwood [ Ac 9c ]
DrMuffin folds.
NoMeansYes_ folds.
frazwood raises [$21].
mowine folds.
S4tolly raises [$38].
xxYogi0008xx folds.
frazwood calls [$20].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3c, Tc, 2d ]
S4tolly bets [$70].
frazwood raises [$210].
S4tolly raises [$280].
frazwood is all-In [$115]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5h ]
** Dealing River ** [ 4d ]
S4tolly shows [ Qc, Qs ] a pair of queens.
frazwood shows [ Ac, 9c ] a straight, ace to five.
S4tolly wins $25 from side pot #1 with a pair of queens.
frazwood wins $735 from the main pot with a straight, ace to five.

I quickly quit playing poker after this hand, because I was clearly playing like an idiot. I'm sure that S4tolly was quite happy with my hit-and-run.

In the end, I finished the session stuck about $400; and while that's not great, it's manageable. I am serious about taking a break from limit poker though. It's such a grind and I have lost my patience. I played a little $200 NL this morning and I booked a nice win against some over-aggressive donks trying to bluff on the river. We'll see how it goes from here... I might even take a short break from serious poker (i.e., higher stakes) until my mind clears itself a bit.