Going Down?

Another rough day for me yesterday. It was over three hours before I won my first pot. I only hit one flop in that time, flopping middle set and turning a full house. My hand went down in flames to a guy who never released any of his pocket pairs before the river. He rivered a bigger full house, the first of five times he rivered a set in two hours. CJ, step aside. I have found the new luckbox.

This recent rough stretch has turned into a 70 big bet downswing. Ouch.

Yesterday I spent part of the time that I wasn't hitting flops chatting with Vince. Vince is a local who is in the game four or five days a week. He's roughly 50 years old, with a dark complexion, glasses and gray hair at his temples. Vince has been playing casino poker for 21 years and is the complete opposite of Erin (profiled yesterday). No matter how badly he gets outdrawn, outflopped or outplayed, he never has a sharp word for anyone. He just says "good hand" to his opponent in a very sincere tone and mucks his cards.

"You seem to have mastered the calm demeanor aspect of this game," I said to him.

Vince shrugged. "I guess. Just seems to me that you don't get excited by your wins and don't get disappointed by your losses. If you're playing right, it should all work out at the end of the year."

Interestingly, I did not get tilted yesterday while waiting for my first pot to materialize -- not even when the Luckbox showed me his rivered full house. Baby steps. And maybe a few more conversations with Vince.