I gotta admit, I’ve done more than my fair share of bitching this Summer.  I read Shaniac’s blog the other day and read how he had his first cooler of the summer with QT vs. 22 on a Qt23 board.  What I would give to have that many coolers in one DAY!  Absolutely NOTHING has been easy (aside from mopping the floor with Ozone at golf.)  Last night, it all continued.

Just as Sammy Farha is superstitious, I’m mathticious.  I’m far more absorbed in the probability of outcomes than the result.  So it purely amazes me when I not only found myself on the short end of a set over set, but he turned quads for good measure.  Nothing like have a boat on the turn (again) and drawing dead…  Little help did I get on my rebuy when I ran AK into A8 on an A98 board.  This happening in 40 minutes just amazes me.

More amazing is in the 2nd hour (two rebuys in now) when in consecutive hands, I get A,J suited (flop a flush) AK (flop an ace) and AK again (flop an ace) and proceeded to take three different betting routes… The flop check, the flop big bet, and the flop small bet; all of which were folded by all opponents of all shapes and sizes.  Talk about running bad.

I also played with a guy who probably was the best and smartest player I’ve played to date at the TI HH.  This guy just read situations perfectly.  He played so many hands to perfection.  He had 27k and called a raise of 800 from the SB only to watch me shove 7.2k all-in with my AK.  It folds to him and he just perfectly peels off my hand and calls with 2,2.  I’d think he was nuts if he didn’t just map out his entire thinking process for me.  Fortunately, I flopped a king.  Unfortunately, he also flopped a flush draw.  NOTHING is easy for me.  I had to dodge the 11-outer twice to stay alive.

I took two bounties in this tournament, both of which I had to river the win.  In 7 of my 10 bounty attempts, I ran into Aces four times, KK, QQ, and JJ.  How am I CONSTANTLY on the other side of these monster hands on the all-ins?

The walls came tumbling down with 7 players left when it folded to the SB (fresh off such a bad bluff that he folded getting 5:1 on his money on an all in (and for a bounty.))  He raises the 1k/2k blinds up to 5k and I shove my 23.6k only to have him snap call and show me (like I even need to finish this sentence) Aces…  Oh, and how many chips did he have?  Yeah, that’s right.  He ALSO had 23.6k.

I’ve decided today that I need to change my game again.  I’m going to do what every player should do and that’s bet when last to act on the flop and action is checked to me.  When players run bad, they change their game for the worse, usually overplaying certain hands, bluffing more, or just playing TAG when they clearly should be aggro.  I’m taking the aggro route today at the Golden Nugget.  Maybe I’ll play 12 hours and bubble.  It’d be an accomplishment if I could bubble, as I haven’t gotten that far yet this summer.