WinStar (December 1)

It has been a long time since I’ve left a poker game fuming. Any loses I’ve had in the past year I’ve taken in stride, but last night I reached a new level of annoyance with the events that transpired at WinStar.

In two hours I lost $300. It wasn’t that I lost the money (not completely at least) but how it happened that made me flip out as much as I did afterward. In 120 minutes of play I won only a single hand that had $5 in the pot. Every other hand was either trash like 7-2 and 9-3 or something worth calling to see a flop and then not hitting squat. I got enough decent hands throughout my time at the table that I called myself down to nothing, with the exception of two hands that crushed me.

The first hand was with jacks. I raised it pre-flop to $10 and got two callers, creating $30 in the pot. The flop came K-K-4. I was first to act and bet $15. I got a call from a guy with more than $400 in front of him. Now there was $60 in the pot. The turn was an ace. I again led out with my jacks and bet $25. I was again called. The river was a seven and we both checked it down. My opponent showed A-7, giving him a higher pair on the turn.

Okay, fine. I lost with jacks. Not that big of a deal, but it was all culminating in not winning any hands and not hitting anything to help me out a little. I bought in for another $100 and not five hands later I get aces.

I raised again pre-flop, this time in late position, and was called by three players. The flop was 3-5-6 with two spades and a club. The first person to act was a female and she bet $12 into a $40 pot. One player called and it was around to me. I immediately raised it to $60 total. This put a total of $124 in the pot and it was another $48 to call my raise.

When it got back to the original bettor she thought for about two minutes and during this time she asked how much more money I had, which was another $60, and she stated how she never chases draws. Well, this time she decided to chase her draw. The other player folded and we went to the turn.

The fourth card was the king of clubs, giving two spades and two clubs on a 3-5-6-K board. The woman led out with $48 and I went all-in for my remaining $60. She called the $12 and showed A-4 of clubs. I think we all know the end of this story. She caught a seven on the river for her straight and I left enraged at her, at poker, at everyone at the table, at everything.

For the evening, my loss rate was $150 an hour. My year-to-date hourly wage at poker is 9.62, making $1,400 in 2010.