Commerce 10-20 NL

Friday afternoon started play about 4pm. Bought in for $2,500. Ran it up to $6,000 in 2.5 hrs. Then Asian to my right flops set holding 2-2 on a flop of 6-6-2. I have position on him with K-K, called him down to river. ($3k) in that one hand. Fuck. Then got coolered by him again, ($1k). Back to where I started. Ran it back to $4k then lost $2k when my flush lost to river board pairing. In both the K-K vs 2-2 and this hand, my gut told me I was beat at the river but I proceeded to make the call anyways. After that I would not say I played terrible, but just never got enough big pot action, and ultimately moved in looking to win a $2,400 pot on a flush draw but blanked out.

-$2,500 for the session. No going to do Vegas this week for WPT Championship super satellites unless I feel really, really good mentally, and business continues to ramp up nicely. Just too much damn time and money to get up there, stay, try some single table satellites, potentially not hit on those and be forced to fork over $2,500 for the super, only to run the risk of not getting that done. Probably better to just cool off the downswing, focus on business and family, reflect further on the elements of play that have not been good enough to yield a profit.

It's NEVER a good place to be when you fear a bust at the cash game or tournament. Playing when it is not financially justified or when your time belongs with business or family is a sure fire recipe for bad play. So I may likely just hold off until the WSOP starts in June. That leaves 6 weeks to "refortify" and put myself in a position for success.

But enough of this damn downswinging. Preserve the profits when you hit them, and just knit up until the next big pot. Generally my small ball instincts have been good. What erodes the stack is ..

a) Making too many speculative preflop overcalls simply cause the pot odds are there, even with garbage hands. Of particular weakness has been suited cards and 2-3 gappers with a face card. Just playing too many hands, which over a 4-6 hour session at 50-75 bucks per call, just kills the stack.

b) Not getting up when I have run it up nicely, especially if that is early in the session. I suppose if the game is really juicy, fine. But if it is a game with strong players and all I did was score do to some better luck, might as well count the blessings and JET. Or even sit at a smaller game, risking only 2 or 3 small buyins. Pocket the profit.

Not so much uncontrolled tilting ... rather slow but inevtibale EROSION. Rid your game of it, or just don't play.