Pass The Antiseptic

Ugh. I played my first poker in almost two weeks today, and very soon regretted it.

Not that I've been short of time. On the contrary, I've had more time on my hands than usual - though it's been mainly of the non-productive variety.

I've been flattened by some sort of virus that the doctor assures me is now on the retreat. Missed a ton of work - not good when you are a freelancer!

One day I'll feel fairly serviceable, the next I wake up feeling OK, but by midday in work I'm coughing, sneezing, sweating, achy, and almost asleep.

Head home, lie down for a recuperative nap, and wake up 15 hours later feeling just as ill.

Very disconcerting, and not a good condition to be in when playing poker. So, I've given it a miss until now.

Tonight I figured I'd have myself a little game. Since I've been eternally promising to take a shot or two at some tournaments, I decided to give the $11 double shootouts to the Stars Sunday Million a try.

It seemed to make sense. A low fee, a big potential upside, and my SNG game had been pretty sharp pre-illness.

Hah! What foolish optimism. Two absurdathons later I felt like I needed to go take a shower to rid myself of the cloying stench of unfettered moronity.

I've often wondered at the reports I see on various forums and blogs, of how diabolical the play can be in the Sunday night biggies across various sites.

How can the play be so bad, when the buy-in is fairly significant?

Tonight I got my answer! I seriously doubt some of the players actually CARED what their cards were. It was purely a chuck em in and see how it goes attitude.

If a gutshot draw was gold, a flush draw - any flush draw - was pure platinum. Worthy of an all-in reraise, no matter the bet or pot size.

There appeared to be an embargo on limp-folding to a pre-flop raise, no matter how big, or the cards held. No consideration of pot odds, stack sizes, position. 100% pure donkeydom.

Of course the last few paragraphs are the thoughts of a sick and bitter man.

In the cold light of day, and when my illness has subsided, what this actually translates as is 'I need to play a whole lot more of this game!'

Not being much of a tournament player, satellites are a pretty pointless endeavour for me normally. However, if I can't get paid in these things at a rate substantially better than 1-in-64 I might as well give up poker and stick to the lottery.

I imagine the variance must be pretty high - and the suckout/tilt score must be astronomical - but a bit of perseverance must surely pay off?

There are presumably a fair few players out there who make a decent living playing these games and converting the winnings into a hefty bank of saved T$ for investment in other tourneys, or cash trading purposes.

It won't be a full time endeavour for me, but I'll certainly be diverting some effort in this direction once I'm fighting fit again.