Well, then that happened

So I've been running good in 2008. I'm up about enough overall to erase my losses from 2007 and put me back in the "winning player" category. As long as we ignore the fact that I've lost pretty much every dime every dime ever put into any online account. Ever. But that's beside the point. I've run pretty well all year, with some exceptional nights at the home game to boot.

Last Saturday night was not one of them. Not even close. I managed to only return $150 to the local poker economy, but it felt like more. I was $350 into the game, and running bad. I missed almost every draw, and when I got big hands, I seldom got paid off. Jim was kind enough to almost double me up early with AK against my Aces, but aside from that it was a rough night. T had a good night, thanks in large part to picking up 3/4 of a huge pot with me and Nate in Omadraw. Nate fired out $60 on the river on board with a pretty obvious wheel out there, and T shoved all in over the top of him. I was pretty invested in the pot at that point, and would have lost more by folding than by getting quartered, so I came a long with my wheel, thinking that we were probably chopping high and low.

But at least Nate came along, so I only dropped about $20-30 when she turned over the straight flush for the high and the wheel low, quartering me. I tried to get away from a few more hands in Omaha than usual, but it was hard when I kept seeing what Nate was showing down. He's absolutely the type of player that you want to get to showdown with, but he was running pretty good that night, and that makes him hard to play against unless you're willing to make huge calls. I don't like making big calls, I prefer to make the big bets and force other people into tough decisions. But that wasn't to be the case this weekend. Bad Blood came up for the game, and remarked that it was a sad day when he logged his first losing session at my home game. It's still a super-juicy game, but as we've played Omaha for a few months, my edge in the game has decreased dramatically. Now that most of the table is at about the same skill level (which is to honestly say, not much), I have to tighten up a bit and play a little smarter.

That's tough for me, since I'm not a terribly smart poker player.

On a different note - has anyone read the Harrington on Cash Games books? I keep thinking about picking them up, and keep not doing it. So I'd welcome some opinions.

On yet another different note, the new Truckin' is out, and I'm featured in it. The story I have out there this month is one I'm very proud of, and I think you should all check it out.

Richard III opens tomorrow night, so if you're in the area, stop by and see the show. It's pretty good, but like all of Shakespeare's histories, it's long. The big fight at the end is pretty good, and has me limping around like Doyle Brunson lately. I fell wrong on Saturday and screwed my knee up a little bit, so I'm tossing back Pain-Aid at work and making sure to bring my kneepads to rehearsal every night.