Scenario:

I'm at a $1/2 NLHE $100 max table and it's around 1:30 pm. I've been there since noon, and cannot catch a break. I've folded perfectly good hands because there is no respect here for any raises, and even less for mine. I am the lone woman at a table of ten, all are younger than me and look to fall between the ages of 20 and 40.

Except for one person, they are all playing by instinct. I think. They are calling and over-reaching, but miracle cards are hitting most of the time, and the three worst offenders are congratulating themselves that they are better at poker than the rest of us.

I've dropped a buyin already, and am $25 into my second. Some of it is bad play on their parts, the rest is bad play on my part when I got caught up in the "if you can't beat them, join them" mentality.

I'm in late position and see red aces. Two people have called, there are no raises. I raise to $15. This is an overbet for preflop on this table, but I want everyone out of the pool. Everyone folds except SB who raises to $40. This guy has played garbage, but I am wary of his luckbox capability. Fuck it I say, and push out the rest of my chips.

He instacalls.

And turns over 5 2 offsuit.

OF COURSE he wins with it. Even though there's an ace on the flop. He hits a four flush. With the two of hearts spades (I really shouldn't write blog posts during class...damn kids keep distracting me).

"I had a feeling," he laughs as he starts stacking the chips. Two of the players look at me and shake their heads. "So ugly," one says. "That's just dirty," the other says. They start to berate the winner for being stupid; "ssshhhhhh, don't tap on the glass" I say.

I remember Okie Vegas and how I took out Maudie and can only smile. "Happens to the best of us."

At this point, do you:

1. Pull out another hunnert, and stay at the table.
2. Tell the dealer to hold your seat and go stomp around for a few minutes.
3. Grab your stuff, give up your seat and get outside to walk around the Falls, have lunch, people watch, and otherwise kill time until the bus home.
4. Grab your stuff, give up your seat and get outside to walk around the Falls, have lunch and calm down, rethink your strategy, and go back renewed and ready to kick ass.
   

I went with number four, with the added extra of ranting phone calls to Hunny Bunny and Surflexus who both basically said the same thing: Calm down, let it go, then kick ass like you know you can!

After 10 minutes standing at the edge of the Horseshoe Falls watching a few million gallons of water slip over the brink, I went and treated myself to a nice lunch and some time people-watching and taking notes for my NaNoWriMo efforts.

Once I'd lost the tilt and regained my sense of humour, I went back and put my name back on the list for $1/2. They had a spot open at the only limit table they were running so I slid in until a NLHE space came up.

I know it's a different game, especially at $2/5. Man, I thought the 1/2 talbe was filled with calling stations. It had nothing on this level of donkery. I was there for an hour, and the gentleman to my left was in every single hand. Every one. And chased to the turn just about every time. Yeesh. But it was definitely a good exercise on patiently waiting for the good cards. I played four hands in the hour and left the table up $50.

Oh joy. The same 1/2 table, and Mr 52 off is still here. And here I played well. I played a flopped nut flush so perfectly, I milked two players out of $75 each. After that, my raises got noticed, and I was able to get away with some steals.

The best hand was against Mr. 52. I had A9 Spades, and was first to bet in middle position, I bet $17 (the raise of choice for the table now it seemed), everyone folded except Mr 52 in BB, he just called. The flop came 9 clubs, 7 spades, 3 spades. He checked, I bet 40, he re-raised me allin. (Sidenote: I hate being on the receiving end of a check-raise.) I waited for a second thinking of the set he could have, the draws, etc...... then I called him anyway with only TPTK.

Have you ever had one of those hands where you just KNOW you've got it, that you're going to catch the right card?

He flipped over 9 diamonds and 7 of hearts and said "I have two pair" as the dealer was turning over the turn card. I knew before I saw it that it'd be an ace.

"I have two pair now too," I said with a huge grin. The look on his face was priceless. He started to tilt and foam at the mouth until I used my best teacher voice to remind him about AA vs 52.

Revenge live is as sweet as the online version.

So with that hand, I got unstuck for the day (I donked off a bit later, but was only down about $10 overall, rather than $200), but better yet, got some payback.