Hollywood Swingin'

Gah! What a brutal couple of days bankroll-wise. Saturday I was debating whether or not I should play the cash games after a local home tournament. I ended up doing so, and proceeded to lose about $580 playing heads up and then three-handed. Both guys I can outplay pretty easily; one is far too loose and the other too tight. But the loose guy was hitting everything. Turning an out-kicked pair into two pair. Turning a lower pair into trips. Making all of his draws while I missed mine. Outflopping me with dominated hands. And so on ...

The tight guy was hitting on me too. On one hand, I flop top pair with the nut flush draw. He flops a set, and trap-calls my lead-out bet. I make my flush on the turn, and lead out again. He raises, I shove, and he calls. But, I get Greensteined when the Ace pairs on the river. Another time, his low flopped straight holds up against my bigger open-ender plus flush draw. Ai ya!

And this morning, I had to drop about $720 on dental care ... my insurance policy (a good one!) only covered half of my crown procedure. In hindsight, I might have been better off claiming I forgot my checkbook in the car and dodging payment until after the Vegas trip. But that would have required me to screen phone calls for the next few weeks, and ignore all the "courtesy" notices that come in the mail. Well, some time ago I decided that that portion of my life would be over. So I sucked it up and shelled out the cash then and there.

Nevertheless, now I'm stuck $1,300 and I still have a week and a half before I even get on the plane to Vegas. This will put a cramp in my side action, for sure. After paying for food and drink for three days in a city that is particularly well-designed to separate tourists from their hard-earned cash, I'm down to about $600 to play games other than Event #16 ... yikes!

I think it's time to either find some investors, or to make a quick score or three before I go ...



BTW: Until fairly recently, $600 would have been plenty of bankroll for me to have a great Vegas trip with plenty of gamble. Nowadays, it feels like chump change. I can't decide if that means I've progressed a lot or just become more of a degen.