8 days till Vegas

Can't wait until Vegas. Been working really hard lately, so can't wait for a break. Last night's session was another real frustrating session. Was up about $3k within the first hour, then got up to about $4.5k at my high point a couple hours later. Was hoping that I was going to have a huge day. Then, literally within 45 minutes I got some ridiculous beats/cold decks and only finished the day up around $1,300. Realllllly frustrating. I was playing a bunch of tables heads up and heads up can be real swingy. Losing thousands of dollars within minutes isn't fun, especially when I get the money in ahead. One hand I was playing a tough/aggro player HU who had been playing too overaggressive with me. He min raises pre-flop and I make it $32 with KK. he calls. Flop comes 753. I bet $45 and he calls. Turn is a 6. I check because he was trying to bluff me out of pots everytime he could, so I check to trap, and he fires pot. Perfect! I push all-in, and he calls with AJ!!!! River: A wtf!?!?!?!? This was after I had just taken some sick beats on some other tables and I punched my table. My sound on my computer went off, so I figured that I somehow managed to break my speaker. Playing with no sound, and knowing I need to buy a new speaker for my computer tilted me even more. I rarely tilt when I play, but the last few nights have been crazy. I think it's stupid posting about bad beats in a blog, but figure it'd be interesting to people who read this blog who don't play poker, to understand what it's like. I wish I could give a good analogy on what it feels like. Picture you're a sales person and you've worked all month wining and dining a client, trying to land your biggest deal ever, and finally they decide they want to do business with you. So you have the deal just where you want it, about to be rewarded with a huge payday for your all your work, and then when the person comes to sign the contract with you, as you see him approaching your office coming across the street he gets hit by a truck and dies.

I really can't complain though about rough nights, as I'm hopefully going to have my best month ever this month. I stopped playing early last night since I didn't feel I was on my game since I was frustrated. I didn't want to blow any money to tilt. Turns out the punch I landed didn't actually break my speaker either, it somehow muted it. Weird. I didn't even know how to mute it regularly!?!? I think I'd like to buy something I can hit and keep it next to my computer. Maybe a mini-punching bag or something.(any suggestions?) People who don't play poker who are reading this probably think I'm some maniac. I really am probably the calmest/most non-tilting player I know. If you lose thousands of dollars within minutes to bad beats though you'll understand.

I think I might stay away from a lot of HU. I'll still play HU, but if I'm playing HU at a bunch of tables, and get bad beats/get real swingy it makes me want to tilt at my 6 max games, when playing 6 max I almost never tilt. I actually debated trying to play HU full-time because I feel that in heads-up play a good player can create a HUGE edge on their opponents if they are a very good heads up player. I think mentally playing HU full time would be more stressful than I'd want, since you go on more swings. That would make me not want to play as much. Not wanting to play as much would = less money.

Anyways, Vegas in just over a week so I'm going to work hard until then, and then it's vacation time.

I changed my flight on the way back from Vegas to stop in the midwest so I could stop by and see the duplex I'm buying. I couldn't cancel the 2nd part of my first trip or I'd have to pay like $130 for canceling, and then I'd have to book a new flight going to Vegas, etc... Since the roundtrip flight that I had booked was only like $300+, I figured it'd probably just be cheaper getting a new flight on the way back, which is like $400ish, than paying $130 to cancel and then having to book a new flight for when I leave too, which will be more now since the date is much closer. I hate wasting money though, which is what it feels like. I think I may be able to get a credit for the flight I don't go on though since I kept it and it was roundtrip, so we'll see.