Changing Tide?

..Is the downward spiral finally reversing again? Too soon to know...

Last week/2 weeks have been horrible. My focus/confidence has been off and so has my poker game. I'm at about -1500$ for the last week and a half.

The whole no poker, sex, drinking, smoking.. Well poker lasted the shortest = 2 days, sex = 3 days, and drinking + smoking = 5 days..

Sunday played in a Live limit tourney with the GF. Her first live tourney, + she's been playing NL tourney's online so was proud of her in this -- She finished 2nd to last table -- Right before me. This is a 5$/buy-in 10 full-table, W/unlimited 10/20 rebuys first hour... 5$ buys you 500 chips w/25-50 starting blinds which escalate quick-- yes obviously have to rebuy... 10 dollars gets you 1k, while 20 gets you 2k... add-on gets you 4k .. I rebought for 20 first, and 10 later, and folded Pocket Kings preflop the hand before add-on w/400 chips left (just enough to call BB preflop...). She rebought once for 10$ and did the add-on for 20.

50/100 level I get AKs ... Raise from UTG+2, and get 3 callers behind... Flop comes A86 (2 spades, none of my suit) .. I bet out.. everyone and their mom calls and the button raises. ..I call.. Turn's a 2 .. I bet out again (thinking maybe the button was on a flush draw.. and would see here.) .. calls, calls, button raises.. I fold. Enough of that... bah. he has trip 6's.

Next hand I play.. QKclubs. I call a relatively loose players raise from cutoff. 3-way. Flop = Qh 10c 7c. the blind player bets.. initial raiser calls and I raise.. Call, Raise All-in, call... Well. I don't hit clubs, and lose to J9(BB) when I get top two on river.. GAH..

GF reported she was doing well (Actually chip lead at her table for sometime), but right before add-on she lost her Aces HU against some donk playing 10-2 thinking he was brunson w/nothing but a pair of two's on the flop and turn -- he bet, and she raised his bets into her on both the flop and the turn while he called, only for him to pull a river 2 out of his a$$ to make trip 2's. (no he didn't make some odd read like she was overplaying AK etc.. She said he had to have rebought in at least 7 times.. just a donk w/a lot of money to blow apparently...) She ended up joining my table w/two left to go.. Blinds are ridiculous at this point, the game changes to NL (house rules on final two tables, and was close enough to NL anyways with the blinds...) Blinds are 2k-4k .. She has 8.5k in chips and is in BB... She gets one middle position caller (K6s - donk) .. I fold A8s in MP2.. SB calls, and she raises all in for her last 9 500 chips... She shows 10-10 and the donk With K6 calls and rivers a 7 high straight on her. ... I made a little chips finally before she joined my table - with an all-in after my Add-on w/AQ.. I raised and your basically pot commiting yourself on most flops w/these blinds which sucks... The whole structure is horrible, but only one she can play since she's barely turning 20 this month (Only have to be 18 here.. Cabazon..).. Anyways Sucked out on AK and 88 on the river w/my AQ : ) .. Finally, a dealer that sucksout in my favor : ) Than they go and change her right after.. sigh..

So now, Next hand after the GF gets eliminated - I Raise with AQ to 8k (which I'd say is roughly as scary to most semi-intelligent players here as a 3-5x raise under other blind/tourney structures considering the slim difference in blinds to stack ratio's..) .. Folds around to BB who raises all in.. This is about 5k more for me to call, and I have 8k Commited, but this leaves me with only 4k chips left if I call and lose... But I do w/the odds and figuring he could have a wider range of hands trying to protect his BB as it's a good 2/5ths or so of his remaining chips... He flips JJ and it holds up against my AQ. Very next hand I once against have AQ(suited this time..) .. I push again w/blinds coming back around - this is an easy push.. and I go home empty.. I can't even recall by what hand now, but didn't connect w/anything again .. .. Afterword we stopped and had some Italian food and checked out "The Sentinel" I believe it was called. Was a pretty good movie, I liked it.


Well, Yesterday.. Early morning.. I dusted off the last of my poker stars bankroll .. lol.. playing in a 5dollar MTT and an 11 45-person SNG... The 11 dollar.. I lost almost all my chips raising 5x w/JJ and having one caller on a 3 5 8 flop... I made a decent bet .. He calls.. turn is another 5 .. I make a decent bet, he makes minimum raise.. Could of played this different but it was a smaller buy-in.. i'm frustrated, and well I pushed.. he shows 25s. .. fcking 25 he called my raise with. oh wells. : ) .. This type o shit has been the story of the last couple weeks tho.. grown used to it..

Yesterday... The GF was sick overnight.. woke up sick and dizzy for awhile.. and the alarm wasn't set right, so I ended up oversleeping quite a bit and just called in for work (it was already later than the time i was supposed to be in and takes me about an hour to get in).. I woke up and donked the last of my 20 dollar or so bankroll away as mentioned above.. was over 1k just over a week ago... Haven't yet had to redeposit on pokerstars since my first initial deposit - sad... The bright side.. We went out to eat.. was a nice warm day.. went and worked out a bit and went swimming..

..After swimming we laid out awhile, and I felt good.. fresh.. breathed in some sunlight.. some RA and let it flow through my system a bit in a sort of meditative state : ) .. Came back.. and played 3 SNG's .. one w/my last 10 on UB, and one 20, and one 30 on Noble simulataneously.. I finished first in all of them. Games just flowed correctly as they should. Everything fit. I didn't play the rest of the day.. So now, that's where I am .. Hopefully, it's over?? .. hrmm, we'll see.. .