What a week

It's not many weeks I get to play poker three nights in a row, but this was one of them. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of good to report, as my game fell apart all three sessions, but that's kinda been my August. I remarked to a friend today that at the stakes I play, it's remarkable that I had a session +$500 on the second of the month, and managed to get stuck $100 by the 18th. Pretty impressive, I think.

So Wednesday I made my way back to the warehouse game, and took fourth for $200 on a $85 buy-in. Would have made me feel a lot better if I hadn't held 40% of the chips in play when we got to 4-handed, but one bad beat and a pile of hyper-vagtastic play on my part, and I was glad I'd agreed to a save for fourth. My bad beat was flopping a set with Queens and losing to Broadway, but there's no excuse for me letting off the gas when we got to 4-handed. I sat back and tried to play small ball when I should have been wielding my big stack a LOT harder. And that cost me a pile of profit.

Then Thursday I went back to the $110 tourney, and performed admirably. If by admirably we mean awfully. The Thursday tourney has a $5 bounty on everyone, and the levels are only 15 minutes long instead of 20, and the contrast in structure was huge for me. I needed the extra 5 minutes per level, and I needed to catch some cards. Didn't go well and couldn't get the cash game going, so I went home even over the two nights. I would have been stuck, but I won $15 off the dealer playing stud before we got the tourney going.

Sunday was my birthday tourney (actual birthday was Thursday, but we could get a game going on Sunday, so there it is). That was also somewhat less than spectacular, as I got nothing going at any point in either the tournament or the cash game. Nothing terribly interesting on any front, just a whole lot of me making moves that got picked off or betting draws that never got there. I don't know that I played a single hand particularly well or poorly, but it ended up expensive. I chatted wit Special K and Brian the Red a little after the game, and it just seems like my game is a little broken right now. I'm still certainly up for the year, but the month of August has been pretty ugly so far. I'm probably going back to the warehouse game Wednesday to see how that goes, but right now I've got to figure out what the issue is.

Maybe I need some new poker music - any suggestions?