I haven’t updated here in a while, and really it’s because I haven’t been doing so well. It isn’t that I’ve been doing poorly, just not as well as I like to do. For one thing, I’ve about stopped playing, on a relative basis. I guess I’m going through a period where I just don’t care for playing quite as much as I used to. Aside from being on a break-even streak (cumulatively) there’s also the fact that money has not been quite as hard to come by as it was a few months ago when I was paying exorbitant baby-sitting fees, and Tina hadn’t started car-pooling. I don’t have to play to make extra money.

My intention with this blog was partly to keep track of wins and losses and I have not been doing that very well. Let me do my best to recap a dreary month at the table, though. I believe the first game since I stopped recording anything here was up at Anthony’s. I got up a little (about fourteen dollars) but then I lost nine rounds in a row at Screw Your Neighbor. That’s isn’t a poker game per se, but since I wouldn’t have been playing it if I hadn’t already been playing poker, I have to cunt the loss as a poker loss. Net loss for the night: four dollars. I redeemed my self at Nathan’s a few nights later by winning ten dollars. Then I unredeemed myself by going back to Anthony’s and getting in a game, for two buy-ins, getting back to about a dollar game, and then losing interest and letting someone else play my stack, while I sat on the couch and talked and drank hard liquor. Net loss ten dollars. The next time was much better as the cards had improved and I was able to use my chip lead to bully the other players around a little bit, and actually left with a twenty-five dollar win. I went back to Nathan’s a little later, and after much drum-fuggery (bad cards, cautious play, late hours) I finally left four dollars down. It was late. I played cards at Nathan’s again last night, and lost three buy-ins over a period of about three hours. I was a little irritated with myself. I just couldn’t run my game against those opponents, and when I did see light of day, I kept running into brick walls. The night finally ended when I bet QQ hard before the flop and had two callers. Flop was 576 rainbow. Daylan bet out a little, and I doubled his bet. Kyle raised all-in (he had been way up, but was down to three dollars or so). Daylan raised all-in again, to cover me on the side. I thought, well maybe they have the straight, but I bet hard before the flop and was called. They should have face cards. I called. Kyle has top pair, but Daylan turns over 89. The turn is a king, so I don’t even have to look at the river. Net loss fifteen dollars. Cumulative over the period: I won two dollars. Better than losing, but you can see why I’m a little beaten down. I think that’s an hourly rate of around 10 cents. It’s a good thing I enjoy the company.