Out of commssion

I learned something very important over the last couple days. For the last few months I have been battling a sinus infection. Sometimes it gets worse and sometimes it gets better. I have good days and bad. For the last 6 weeks or so I have been on medication and its safe to say that my condition has gotten better. One of the main things the doctor told me was to lay off the weed. I have laid off considerably but not entirely.

There was a time when I use to smoke everyday multiple times a day and had plenty of days where I was literally high all day. I'm not going to lie, I really miss those days. With that said, I have cut it all the way down to smoking maybe 7-8 times per month. The doctor tells me that smoking can only aggravate my condition. Well, after what took place over the last couple of days I have decided that I will never smoke again until I am completely better. On one hand, this should be really easy because the thought of smoking really repulses me right now. On the other hand, this is easily going to be one of the most challenging things I have ever faced in my life. Not smoking is the easy part, but being able to turn it down every time it is offered is going to be nearly impossible. I really have no choice though. I have to do this even if it kills me.

My understanding is that my immune system is compromised right now and it is easier to get sick and when I do get sick it could quickly get really bad. I got sick over the weekend and for just having a cold it was the worst I ever felt for something so minor. I do not know how I got sick, but it is probably from a combination of things. I don't think the weed alone got me sick because I have been smoking and haven't gotten sick.

The other night when I was at Commerce, I left my session early with a nice come-up and went over to my friends to go blaze. My friend lives in this crazy house with 5 other guys. I don't know the other guys and have only met them on a couple of other occasions. What I do know though, is that there are a lot of drugs in that house. Some of the guys that I was with that night did not look to good. They looked like they had been doing it really hard for a really long time. A couple of them shared the joint with me and I think one of them was sick.

I think it's also a matter of lifestyle to some extent. That night I didn't go to bed until 5 am. I laid in bed for an hour or so before falling asleep and then woke up at 2 pm to start my day. I got really bad sleep that whole night. With the damn dogs next door barking and other things going on outside I probably never got more then 2 hours of consecutive sleep although I probably slept for a total of 6-7 hours altogether. I woke up and felt like I wanted to die.

For the entire day of Saturday I was completely out of commission and just for a little cold. I had a headache that was a little more intense then what I am use to which lasted all day. My throat was really sore and I was coughing up a lot of shit. Not only that but my whole body was extremely sore. It hurt to just move around. I ended up spending the whole day on my couch. Even more disappointing than that, I ended up missing Saturday at Commerce which is my most profitable day.

I did something that I find to be completely irrational but I had to know. In the middle of my awful day I ended up smoking. I just wanted to see how I would react to it. I more or less wanted to see if smoking was the culprit for my problem or if it was the result of something else. To my surprise and delight smoking went rather well. I got a nice high and my aches and pains went away for a good several hours. Even with that said, I am still not going to smoke anymore until I am better.

I ended up going to bed at midnight that night only 10 hours after waking up for the day and got much better sleep.

When I woke up the next day I would say I was at about 80%. I still felt crappy and the headache was all but gone. As of right now I feel a millions times better although my throat is still really sore and I am still coughing up a lot of shit.

I went to Commerce in the early evening and had a bizarre session. It was practically identical to my last session of 2007. All in all, I am really proud of the way I played. There were two times where I could have lost a lot of money and didn't. I definitely feel I am playing more controlled poker. That or I am turning into a huge nit.

I posted about 4 hands before my BB. On my first BB I took my first bad beat of the night. These bullshit BB and SB hands are really starting to kill me. When looking at some of my recent losses, I only lost because of some chicken shit hand in the BB that I wouldn't have played otherwise.

I was dealt 6 3 off and took a flop in an unraised pot.

Flop 6 5 3.

I bet $20 and there are 2 callers.

Turn: K

I am first to act and check too see what the other guys do and try to get a feel for where they are at. The second guy to act bets out $50. The button folds and I think about it for a minute. There is really no logical hand that I can put him on that I am beating. The only things I can see him having are a flopped straight or a set. I also can't imagine the K helped him at all since he called the flop. The only hand I can see myself beating is 9 9 which actually makes sense considering the way the hand has played out. This is one of the hands where I am proud of myself because I wanted to just shove really bad and I didn't.

River 4. Standard.

We both check and he flips over K 6. Really? How come I almost never hit those 3 outers yet they happen to me constantly?

About 12 hands later I go on to take my second bad beat and once again only lost the minimum. I was really proud about the way this hand went down because I could have easily gone crazy and lost a lot more.

I limped the CO with Q 10 and only had about $100 behind.

Flop: 10 9 7 2 spades.

It checks to me and I have position. I decided to check because I know that any bet I make is getting called and there is too much that is going to beat me on the turn.

Turn J off

There is a bet of $15 and it gets called several ways including myself.

River 7

Checks all the way around. 3 players show a J and one of them has J 8 for the straight. Standard. The guy with J 8 was unaware that he had flopped the straight.

I am now down to about $80.

Another round goes by and I look down at K K. There is one limper and I raise to $25 and win the $12 pot.

THE VERY NEXT HAND, I look down at K K again and I open the pot with a $20 raise. Everyone folds and I win the $7 pot.

About 15 minutes later I am in the SB and the button is the only limper and I look down at QQ. I push all-in for about $70 and win the $10 pot.

I keep folding every hand and push all-in after several limpers when I find an A Q. Nobody calls and I am up to $90 which is the most I have had since the Q 10 debacle.

A few hands later and my last hand, I look down and find A A. I raise to $20 and get two callers. I get the worst flop possible. 9 10 J w 2 clubs.

The first guy checks and I go all-in. The other 2 guys end up going nuts and it quickly turns into a $1500 pot. The winner flipped over Q 8 clubs for a flopped straight and I don't know what the other guy had.

That was a pretty lame session for so many reasons. Oh, it lasted exactly one hour.

Tomorrow I am putting $400 of the original $600 back in the bank. That leaves me with 3 buy-ins to play with. I am only playing 1 buy-in per trip so I should be fine so long as I don't lose 3 trips in a row. Then again, I've done worse.