Cold cards

After my deep run at the APL State Finals my cards have turned COLD. Well, actually they turned cold about 30 minutes before I finished the State tournament.

I've played APL (Australian Poker League) twice this week and seen virtually no cards at all. I had an aggressive table on Monday but it really didn't matter, I saw nothing I could call raises with. Not high cards, not suited connectors, nothing that had a reason to play it.

Then last night at the Shafston it took me around TWO hours before I won a hand. If I had semi-decent cards, I couldn't connect with a flop and when I was able to limp in from the blinds, best I could do was hit bottom pair with no kicker on an obviously dangerous flop. I ended up pushing from under-the-gun with king-ten suited (something I never do) and the big blind was almost all-in so I knew I would get a call. She turned over ace-8 suited, she hits an 8, I hit a king, she hits an ace, hand over. Two hands later I get to limp with ace-2 of clubs from the small blind, two clubs on the flop, I'm first to act so I push all in. The big blind thinks for a short while and then re-raises all in over the top, the other player folds. I'm hoping at this point that the big blind has hit his king and I just need a club or an ace to win the hand ... unfortunately he turns over king-3 of clubs so there are VERY few clubs left in the deck. Thankfully an ace comes on the river and I survive. I end up bubbling, finishing 9th and just missing out on final table. I could have folded my way on to final table and got the points but I wanted to try and chip up because the blinds were high and I'm tired of folding my way on to final table and having no chips.

This Sunday I'm playing in a cash game with friends from the APL. Buy-in is $100 and there's about 25 - 30 people playing so the first prize is more than $1400. These are usually very tough games so it would be VERY nice to take that down, not just for the money but the prestige of running through a quality cash game field!