Well, I finished a disappointing 12th in my bi-weekly PLHE tournament. The pace of play was excrutiatingly slow, with many players chatting it up or paying more attention to the TV than the game. I didn’t see any good cards for most of the night, and a rather large stack was developing at my table after getting lucky on some large pots. He knew enough to bully us all around and it was impossible to get into a hand cheaply, and you didn’t know if he was holding another of his great hands or not. Eventually I went all in with a little less than T300 and AT of hearts. I get two callers and the flop comes AKQ of clubs. Not the most inspiring of sights for me, particularly when it gets bet and raised. After the 9 of spades hits on the turns, the shorter stack goes all-in and the bully calls. The short stack turns over TT and the bully A6. Suddenly I’m breathing a little easier and I’m calling for no club. Of course, I get my wish but it’s the last T and I’m out of the tournament. I was pretty frustrated and wandered the room trying to tell everyone my bad beat story. Eventually I calmed down, but it still stung that again I took an early exit from one of these tournaments.
Saturday I had a buddy in from out of town and we went to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Wow! It is a great mind-bending movie. I don’t know where Charlie Kaufman gets his ideas, but he is a genius. I highly recommend this movie. I’m still getting my head around some of it and I anticipate that it will keep percolating in my brain for a while yet.